A Practical Guide to Advising Clients at the Police Station

Do you have a feeling of extreme trepidation when asked to attend upon clients at the police station stage? If so, this is the book for you. It’s not in any way academic. It’s not in any way a tome. It is, in brief, what you need in order to show the client and the police that you are not a complete novice in a police station and that you know your way around and know the right questions to ask and that you know what your ‘rights’ are and, more importantly, what the rights of your clients are! It is not overloaded with academic references. There are brief references to the Codes of Practice under PACE and occasional references to Case-law. It is a working tool and you should not be without it if you venture into the murky waters of a police station!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Biography of Colin Stephen McKeown-Beaumont

Colin went to a school that didn’t do O-levels. It only did CSE’s. It had no 6th form. People at Colin’s school were not expected to do higher education. Colin did absolutely terribly at school, obtaining a grand total of 3 CSE grade 1’s – O-level equivalents! This spurred him on to take O-levels at a 1-year course in a college of further education. He managed to pass, heaven knows how, the magic 5 O-levels and did his A-levels at a college of further education. He managed to pass 3 A-levels, but not with any real degree of distinction.

He went to the Polytechnic of Central London (and was very grateful to do so!) where he achieved a ‘Desmond’ (that’s a 2 : 2). He then took the Bar finals course and qualified as a barrister. He then was a legal adviser to Magistrates’ for many years until re-qualifying as a solicitor and becoming a defence lawyer and partner in a major criminal legal aid practice. He then retired fully from practice in 2016, having been a solicitor for the best part of 20 years, and went back to his Inn – the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. He is a barrister, albeit, non-practising. He knows his way around but don’t expect him to be academic. He is not academic. He is a jobbing lawyer. He is nobody’s fool.