Driver Frank Wallington has spoken of his shock after being sent private documents for someone else's court case. The 76 year-old is currently fighting his own case through Nottingham Magistrates' Court after he allowed an ambulance to pass him on the A52 in in Radcliffe on Trent and ended up going through a set of traffic lights 1.2 seconds after they had turned red.
Mr Wallington, of Walsall, said he was recently expecting some documents from his case to be sent but was left shocked to discover a lot of "confidential information" had also been sent across with his paperwork in relation to a completely separate court matter.
Nottinghamshire Live first reported in January that Mr Wallington was driving home to the West Midlands after attending his cousin's funeral in Long Bennington on on March 21, 2022 when he saw an ambulance with flashing blue lights approaching. He has vowed to fight the fine and has been told that he must appear at Nottingham Magistrate's Court to dispute the punishment.
He explained: "Ages had gone by, and then I have now received more paperwork regarding the new hearing, as they didn't make a decision in my absence earlier this year, so they sent me new paperwork saying we have a Magistrates' hearing on April 17, coming up very shortly.
"After that I had a big heap of paper, but this is from the CPS. In this load of papers and there's probably about close to 15 or 16 sheets, they have enclosed paperwork for another case to do with an assault."
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Mr Wallington explained the documents contained specific details of threats and those involved, as well as names of police and "a lot of other confidential information".
A spokesperson for the CPS said: "The CPS takes the security of our casework material extremely seriously. We apologise unreservedly for this error. We have now secured the return of the material and we are taking action to ensure there is no further impact to anyone involved.”
But Mr Wallington still remains frustrated over the careless mistake as well as how his "simple traffic offence" remains unresolved over a year later. At the time, Mr Wallington had been driving on the A52 when he saw blue lights approaching and slowed down and indicated to allow the ambulance to pass at the traffic light junction at Cropwell Road, knowing that the two lanes would merge into one after the junction.
However, he was unaware that another car was following closely behind the ambulance, which caused him to go through the lights once they had turned red. Despite feeling he made the right decision to avoid delaying the ambulance by blocking it on a single lane, he is still facing court proceedings over a year later.
Mr Wallington had been invited to a hearing at Nottingham Magistrates' Court in February 2023, but did not attend due to how expensive and lengthy the trip would be, and had hoped the court would be able to make a judgement in his absence. He wrote a "letter to the Magistrates' Court saying that I wouldn't be attending and that it was a simple case of the fact that I let an ambulance pass and a car tailgated through the traffic lights and as a result I went through 1.2 seconds after the traffic light had turned red."
He explained that the whole thing was still "rumbling on" and he just wants a decision to be made. He added: "My wife is now saying that she thinks I ought to go to this court hearing, but for me to go it's costly to travel to Nottingham and back again.
"It's such a simple story that I said that I wasn't going to go thinking they would actually measure justice in their wisdom in whatever way in my absence and it's just rolling on. I just think the whole process is a waste of court time, a waste of my time and an open and shut case."
Mr Wallington's case has also been discussed by the Black Belt Barrister on YouTube in a video that has since been viewed more than 65,000 times with hundreds of comments from people in support of Mr Wallington's "common sense" in allowing the ambulance to pass.
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