DW is Dave White

White failed to appear in court on 30th June. He emailed his lawyer the night before to say that he had had an accident and was in hospital. Which imaginary hospital was not stated. In normal circumstances a medical issue would lead to an adjournment for a person facing their first criminal charge. But with his brief not being able to look the magistrates in the eye the bench saw right through the ruse and issued an immediate warrant for his arrest.

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A period of great frustration followed. White was suspected to be in London and we were able to establish his last known address from his family but the police appeared to again be dragging their feet. Not due to any lack of endeavour from Alfie, our man at the GMP, but getting the Metropolitan Police to take the matter seriously proved challenging. I imagine they have an overflowing workload already, without having to try to find some scroat from Wigan. 

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Tracy then went into full problem solving mode and wrote to the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester police who passed it on to the Chief Superintendent of Wigan Command who fired up the Superintendent of Operations. At this point the police service in the north west were fully engaged but it was still proving difficult to motivate the Met in London. So Tracy got on their case too.

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On 1st September Tracy emailed the Assistant Commissioner of Front Line Policing in the Met and a response came back within half an hour asking for more details. The serious crime squad was mobilised and on the 5th September we woke up to an email from Alfie to say that White had been brought into custody. You may remember where you were around that time, it coincided with the date of Daniel Levy's demise.

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White was put in a cell in Croydon but later released on police bail, with conditions that he needed to sleep at this given home address every night and present himself to the police station on Tuesdays and Saturdays, ahead of a court appearance in Wigan on Friday 19th September. White failed to show up on the first Tuesday but the Met police, in their wisdom, let that slide and he did turn up on the Saturday and Tuesday ahead of his court date. Tracy returned to the UK to be there for his court appearance on 19th September but, once again, he was a no show. Police found him at home in bed that morning and promptly arrested him.

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Now what do you think the magistrates would do when he was brought up in front of them having just ignored his court date? They simply let him out again on the same bail conditions as before. There were simply no consequences for his no show, they just gave him a new court date of 10th October and released him with the same bail conditions.

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Having turned up at the police station on the first Tuesday, he again failed to appear on the Saturday (27th September) and was arrested on Tuesday, 30th. We were really hoping he would be retained in custody this time but, true to form, the magistrates let him out on bail again. There really seems to be no incentive for him to co-operate. 

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On 10th October White appeared at Wigan Magistrates court and pleaded not guilty. He was released on the same bail conditions with very clear direction from the magistrate that he must comply with the conditions. The matter has now been passed to the Crown Court with the case not expected to come to court until some time in 2027. White was in a very poor state when he appeared, clearly still in the grip of addiction and with his nose having been broken. It seems highly unlikely that he will be capable of adhering to the bail conditions for the time between the present and the court case. It remains to be seen how he will be treated by a Crown Court judge when he transgresses. Custody might be the safest place for him.

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