JCIO 39/23

A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said:

The Lord Chancellor, with the Lady Chief Justice’s agreement, has removed Mrs Sabrina Malik of the Southern Derbyshire Local Justice Area from office as a magistrate. Mrs Malik was found to have deliberately withheld important information during her application to become a magistrate, which she knew she was obliged to disclose.

Applicants to the magistracy are required to disclose any information that, if it became generally known, might bring the magistracy into disrepute or call into question their standing as a magistrate. This includes information about any close relatives who have criminal convictions. While such information is not automatically a bar to appointment, it must be disclosed. Additionally, on appointment, magistrates are required to sign a declaration and undertaking, which includes a commitment to notify the bench chair and the head of legal operations / deputy justices’ clerk of any such matters.

Mrs Malik told a fellow magistrate that she had not disclosed information about a close relative during her most recent application to become a magistrate. This was because she thought that the information had resulted in her previous application being unsuccessful.

The Midlands Region Conduct Advisory Committee recommended, in accordance with the Judicial Conduct (Magistrates) Rules 2014, that Mrs Malik should be removed from office. The Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice agreed.

Notes for Editors

Media queries in relation to the JCIO should be made in the first instance to the Judicial Press Office - telephone 020 7073 4852 or via email - press.enquiries@judiciary.gsi.gov.uk

Sanctions for misconduct by judicial office-holders are set out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. They are, in order of severity: formal advice, formal warning, reprimand and removal from office.

For more information about the Office, including details on how to make a complaint against a judicial office holder, you can visit the JCIO website at: Judicial Conduct Investigations website