UPDATE: Sabine’s bail security hearing to take place tomorrow

/ 14/12/2017

According to the daily cause list at Southwark Crown Court, Sabine McNeill’s bail security hearing will take place “not earlier than 10:15” on Friday, 15 December, in Court 5 before HH Judge Beddoe.

At this time, the court will determine whether the £20,000 which was crowd-funded by Belinda McKenzie, Angela Power-Disney, and Sabine’s solicitor Noam Almaz will be accepted as bail security, thus potentially freeing Sabine on bail until the date of her trial in 2018. Sabine has been charged with a total of 19 offences—four counts of stalking causing distress or alarm, and 15 counts of violating her lifetime restraining order, imposed in July 2016.

Yesterday, Belinda stated that she would

…be putting the £20,000 into Westminster Magistrates court then taking Sabine’s computers & passport to Holborn police station, as demanded by the court last week. Then hopefully I’ll be able to pick her up from the prison on Friday and BRING HER HOME!

Apparently the process is not quite as straightforward as Belinda might have wished.

Useful information on bail security

Like many of our readers, until Sabine’s re-arrest last week, we were completely in the dark on the topic, and it’s been a very interesting learning curve. We found this page, published by Mary Monson Solicitors, useful in understanding the concept of bail security and surety.

Here’s what the page has to say about the topic:

Surety and security are two important tools for a bail application for any serious offence. They are financial assurances made to the court usually by family members of the defendant, to guarantee his or her attendance at court whilst on bail.

  • Security is money paid into court before the defendant is allowed out on bail.This must be paid into court in cash or other cleared funds.
  • Surety is money promised to the court by third parties (e.g. family members), and only paid if the defendant does not answer his bail or turn up to court. This can be in the form of money left in the third party’s bank account, or other assets (such as equity in a house).

Documentary evidence must be provided to the court showing that this money is available, or that assets equivalent to that amount exist. This could be in the form of a bank statement or a mortgage statement accompanied by a house valuation.

A good bail application for a serious Crown Court offence (e.g. murder, drug importation etc.) will include a combination of both security (money paid) and surety. The precise amount required varies, but must be a good proportion of the assets of the person providing the asset / money.

The amount offered by the bail solicitors on behalf of the surety or security provider needs to be enough that it would financially hurt the provider if the defendant did not answer his bail.

We will bring you updates as they become available.

As always, we would ask that while this case is sub judice, our readers refrain from speculating about its outcome.

Related posts

9 thoughts on “UPDATE: Sabine’s bail security hearing to take place tomorrow”

      • “Documentary evidence must be provided to the court showing that this money is available, or that assets equivalent to that amount exist. This could be in the form of a bank statement or a mortgage statement accompanied by a house valuation.”

        I suspect’ that a bunch of anonymous net denizens pledging to send money may not quite meet their level of documentary evidence…

        “A good bail application for a serious Crown Court offence (e.g. murder, drug importation etc.) will include a combination of both security (money paid) and surety. The precise amount required varies, but must be a good proportion of the assets of the person providing the asset / money.”

        As the bond is such a large amount and she is a known flight risk (having absconded overseas before), I think hat this quite rightly falls under the serious level

        “The amount offered by the bail solicitors on behalf of the surety or security provider needs to be enough that it would financially hurt the provider if the defendant did not answer his bail.”

        This surely must be the final nail in the coffin for the idea of a gofundme bail as there is no one provider, and the financial pain if she absconded again would be spread out so that no one single person would suffer undue financial pain

        One question that should be asked is are the courts aware of this whip around of the hat- do they even know it is going on?

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Interesting! Thanks for keeping us posted, EC.

    There was much discussion about this at the weekend but I’m still unclear as to what the legal situation is. Going by what was said before and by the link in your post – if I’ve understood correctly – crowd-funding for bail money frowned upon but not illegal. Have I got that right?

    Liked by 1 person

    • “The amount offered by the bail solicitors on behalf of the surety or security provider needs to be enough that it would financially hurt the provider if the defendant did not answer his bail.”

      Interesting
      I wonder how this works- I mean does the amount of bail vary depending on the bailer(??)s financial condition???

      I mean a bail of 200 quid (bloomin australian keyboards dont have a pound sign!) would definitely fit that condition if the bailer was an old age pensioner in a rented flat with 400 quid in the bank…

      On the other hand if the bailer was Bill Gates, I seriously doubt it would cause him any financial pain… I doubt even 200 million would be anything more than a minor inconvenience….

      So how do they do that I wonder?

      Liked by 2 people

      • It is relative to their wealth – it needs to be realistic but punishing as the objective is to release the person on bail with some assurance that they will think twice about leaving it behind when they abscond. The sum is established by examining the defendant, checking any documentary evidence and any information the prosecution put before the court.
        And yes, indemnifying a surety (other people promise to pay if the defendant absconds) is criminal, but it isn’t illegal to support a security, the way the money has been got is simply an issue of fact the court has to consider.
        There are quite strict rules on checking the source of the £££ btw (one reason why it’s rare) to avoid it being used in money laundering (it’s put in an interest-bearing a/c).

        Liked by 1 person

  4. To be honest, I don’t think the courts will even bother as long as the surety is paid or seen to be paid, I do hope I am wrong though. I think something like this will simply go through the admin who will be too busy to check where it came from.

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.