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Interviews under caution arise in many areas of regulation. The first stage following an incident or a visit from a Responsible Authority will be an invitation to an appropriate person to attend an interview under caution.
This is often presented by the authority in question as being an opportunity for the individual or organisation to present their side of the particular story. There is a little more to it than that.
The interview process is the first stage – potentially – towards prosecution of an individual or a company. The authority will be seeking to strengthen its case by gaining further evidence in the form of admissions to whatever the allegations may be.
Therefore, for example, if they have visited your premises and found that the CCTV is not working and there is a condition on your licence which requires it to be working, then they may wish to interview you. They will be hoping that you will accept a) that the CCTV was not working and perhaps b) that you had no proper system of training and/or checking of whether the system was working or not. A simple example but if it were a real situation then your admissions would have confirmed the authority’s own evidence – which it would undoubtedly have – that the system had not been working on a particular occasion and also potentially negated your ability to rely on the statutory due diligence defence.
If an interview under caution is proposed in any circumstances it would be extremely prudent to ask us to advise you and indeed to attend the interview with you. Proper preparation and execution of an interview under caution can often lead to no further action being taken and therefore save costs in the long run in not having to defend proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court.
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