I managed to fight the CAA off successfully myself once, but I must confess to always having been confused about a couple of things when it comes to CAA "prosecutions".
The first is that the Civil Aviation Act says that the CAA is not to be regarded as an agent of the Crown - since the Crown appears against you in court (e.g. Regina v whoever), does that mean they can't do you in that capacity (assuming criminal cases)? Going further, does that mean that the CAA prosecutor himself is the one appearing on the charge sheet, or do they rely on the Secretary of State's authority? I reckon a lot of people who get done would get off merely by pinning them down on that point alone. I am aware that sect 20(2) (I think) allows it to act on behalf of the Crown in certain clearly specified cases, but it's a long time since I read it.
The other thing is that I can't find anywhere that says the bringing of criminal prosecutions has been conferred on the CAA by ANO, and it isn't (or wasn't anyway) listed in Section 3 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 as a conferrable function. I believe this also goes for investigation of "crimes".
Maybe this should be in another thread, but it seemed appropriate here. Would welcome any comments!
regards
Phil
[This message has been edited by paco (edited 14 May 2001).]