21
July 2012
Murder trial halted as stand-in
translator caught out
A murder
trial was halted for a day because an unqualified interpreter – filling in for
his wife – could not accurately translate questions from a barrister.
The man
turned up at Winchester Crown Court 45 minutes late and concerns were raised
after 30 minutes that he was not translating questions into Punjabi properly
for a key witness during the trial of mother-of-two Rajvinder Kaur.
He later
revealed that the booked interpreter – his wife – was busy and he had come to
do her job. He said that he had taken the ALS interpreter test but not received
his results.
The
judge, Mr Justice Burnett, was forced to halt the trial last Friday, but a
similar event happened the following Monday when a female interpreter turned up
and was not able to correctly translate evidence.
The court
was able to carrying on sitting with help from Kaur’s junior counsel Sukhdev
Garcha, who speaks Punjabi and who had raised concerns in both cases.
Both
translators were supplied by Applied Language Solutions (ALS) which won given a
Government contract to supply translators to courts, but has been heavily
criticised after stories of translators failed to arrive for trials or were
unable to accurately interpret proceedings.
Kaur, 37,
was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment and told she would serve a minimum
term of 11 years for battering her mother-in-law Baljit Kaur Buttar to death
with a rolling pin at her home in Southampton last February.
In a
brief statement, ALS said it would not comment on individual cases.
“Any
complaints received about interpreters are investigated thoroughly and, where
necessary, the interpreter is suspended from working with ALS until the
investigation is complete.
“At that
point ALS will either remove them from its register, reinstate them or provide
further training, as appropriate,” it said.
ALS has
claimed its contract, which started formally on February 1, would save the
Government £60m over five years.
But many
interpreters said they had boycotted the company because its low rates of pay,
claiming that led to a struggle by ALS to recruit translators, and prompting
the use of untrained people in courts.
The
company is being monitored daily after failing to meet targets.
It was
eight per cent off target from January to April this year, prompting action
from the Ministry of Justice.
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