14/03/2013
Northampton judge brands
interpreting service “hopelessly incompetent”
A top judge has labelled the company which provides
interpreters to Northampton Crown Court, as “hopelessly incompetent”.
Judge Richard Bray was speaking at a hearing for
Thanh Van Ha, a 20-year-old from Vietnam, who has admitted producing cannabis
at an address in Falcutt Way, Kingsthorpe, Northampton.
No interpreter had been booked for the hearing,
despite one being requested on January 13, the court was told.
Judge Bray described the situation as a “farce”,
adjourning the case due to the fact that Van Ha could not understand any of the
proceedings.
The judge asked for a representative from
translation company, Capita Tl, to be summoned to the court to give an
explanation.
He said: “They are hopelessly incompetent. They are
holding up court business day after day after day.
“This is an absurd waste of time. It is an absolute
farce. It costs £850 a day to keep this defendant in prison.”
The Ministry of Justice controversially privatised
court interpreting in August 2011, awarding a five-year contract to Applied
Language Services. The company was later sold by founder, Gavin Wheeldon, to
Capita TI.
The contract has been fraught with problems,
including accusations of cutting mileage rates for interpreters, and recruiting
unqualified staff when some qualified interpreters refused to sign up with the
firm.
Locally, there have been several instances in
Northampton Crown Court when interpreters have not being provided when
requested.
At one such case last month, barrister Dhaneshwar
Sharma interpreted for two Romanian defendants in the absence of an
interpreter.
Mirela Watson, an Essex-based Romanian interpreter,
said other issues nationally have included a trial collapsing because an
under-qualified interpreter failed to interpret properly, and another where a
crown court judge recognised an interpreter as a convicted prostitute.
She also claimed Capita had taken interpreters from
the National Register of Public Service Interpreters (NRPSI) database without
their permission.
She said: “The Ministry of Justice decided, without
consulting any organisation of interpreters, to outsource to ALS.
“We have been monitoring the situation and
boycotting Capita. The pay is appalling. They are not paying travel time or
expenses - sometimes you are lucky if you are in net [profit].
“Capita said they could cover the whole of the UK.
There is a national database of 2,500 interpreters, and they started off with
only 300.”
A spokesman for Capita Group said: “Capita
acknowledges there have been challenges regarding the delivery of this contract
and the business is investing in improving its performance.
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