Robert Hood, Robert Hood, driving down to jail...

[Hercule Parrot]

This recently-published Appeal Court judgment is rather entertaining, and seems to only scrape the surface of Mr Hood's adventures (https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk ... v/2024/760)

After checking the local paper, it seems Mr Hood became an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) under the Red franchise (https://www.reddrivingschool.com/) quite recently, well into his middle years. No information about his previous life experience, or how often he was admitted to psychiatric wards.

In 2019/2020, two of Mr Hood's pupils failed to pass driving tests in different locations. He didn't take the news well, and tried to get Red's national HQ to assist in challenging this. After reviewing the situation, Red instead terminated his franchise on grounds of abusive behaviour (https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/business/d ... ol-3275768). Hood claims to have successfully sued Red later, but I can't find any evidence for that. He was then struck off the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) register of ADI's, meaning he could no longer charge for driving tuition anyway.

Around this time he commenced a campaign of targeted harassment of driving examiners and test centre managers, accusing DVSA of a grand fraud where 50% of candidates were automatically failed in order to profit from the test fees. Obvious lunacy, because the test fee simply pays for the examiner's time. There's no more or less 'profit' involved whether the candidate passes or fails. He also launched vindictive feuds with local ADI's who criticised his behaviour (https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/peopl ... se-3896114)

By 2023 DVSA decided it was necessary to protect their staff from further harassment, and they obtained an interim injunction ordering Hood to remove their personal, identifiable information from his online campaign. Hood was characteristically defiant, scoffing at the £22,000 costs order - https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/peopl ... 00-4018173

He breached the injunction of course, repeatedly. Calling himself "Robbie the Rat Catcher" he persisted in wild accusations & threats until the court finally imposed a 3 month jail term in June 2024. Hood had refused to enter the court for this hearing, and upon hearing the outcome he scarpered like... well, like a rat really.

This quote from the local rag finally brings us into the sovcit spectrum -

According to sources speaking about the Bournemouth court hearing, Hood turned up to the court with handcuffs and around 30 of his followers before attempting to arrest the judge. “He refused to enter the court without his followers and demanded to film it. This was refused and the case continued without him. He was then sentenced to three months prison,” the person said.

In a post from “Robbie the Rat Catcher” to his followers on social media page Peace Officers UK while on the run, he said: “Thank you to all who attended today at Bournemouth County Court. Only numbers and knowledge kept me out of instant incarceration.”

(https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime ... rt-4658493).

And so finally to the Court of Appeal, where Robbie the Rat (from his jail cell) attempted a classic sovcit "fraud unravels all" defence -

21 - The principal theme running through the arguments put by Mr Hood was the proposition that Mr Smith had committed perjury in his witness statement and that this rendered void all orders made by the court from November 2022 onwards

The Justices gave this short shrift, pointing out that if a witness was alleged to be telling porkies then cross-examination was the place to challenge and expose them. Robbie the Rat didn't agree - if he said someone was a liar, that should be sufficient for the court to seize them and investigate them as a perjurer. Sadly the actual judges had the final say, so RtR stayed in jail to complete his contempt sentence.

Given his crackpot, malicious behaviour so far, and the involvement of the "Peace Officers UK" cranks, I suspect we haven't heard the last of Robbie the Rat. DVSA haven't received their £22k yet, so the next round will be bailiffs.

[longdog]

Robbie the Rat didn't agree - if he said someone was a liar, that should be sufficient for the court to seize them and investigate them as a perjurer.

An interesting idea. Presumably anybody who pleads not guilty but is found guilty would suffer the same fate.

The situation has never arisen but if I was up before the beak on serious charges, and thought I stood a good chance of getting off by lying through my teeth, I wouldn't hesitate for a second.