telegraph.co.uk Wrlte:
Chantelle Amies, 19, was accused of poisoning her neighbour’s fish, worth £7, by putting bleach in their bowl during the course of a disagreement.
She was charged with criminal damage and appeared before magistrates at Norwich on Thursday.
But the court heard that the police failed to send away the water from the tank for testing, and the chair of the bench, Mary-Anne Massey, ruled there was no case to answer.
The average cost to the CPS of a contested trial is £1,500. This was the third time the case had been listed in court, requiring parties to be present, adding hundreds more onto the bill.
The court heard that Miss Amies’ fingerprints had been found on a bottle of bleach in the house and on the fish tank.
The prosecution called three witnesses to say they had smelled bleach in the fish tank, but no-one saw what happened and the court was told the water was not sent for testing by the police because it would cost too much.
Philip Farr, defending, said they could not prove there had been bleach in the tank or whether the fish had been killed by bleach, and the case was thrown out.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: “The CPS is meant to filter out cases that are too weak to secure a conviction, so it is bizarre that this case got so far.
"Given that there are plenty of stronger cases that never get fully pursued, the CPS need to work harder at securing good value.”
A CPS spokesman said: “We obviously felt in this case that we had enough evidence for a conviction and that it was in the public interest to bring this case to court.”
Norfolk Police refused to comment.
