I can see the fines being means tested, although they are massive on the scale of say motoring offences. Even killing a whole bus queue of people would not get you a fine the size of some of these (but might get you locked up).
However what concerns me is not the size of some of the fines but the fact that a prosecution took place.
I wonder if the CAA policy of telling people that the costs will be X if they plead G or 5 times X if they plead NG (and lose) is paying big dividends?
Most GA pilots are relatively skint and if facing say a £10k fine+costs they will plead G regardless.
In my XR3i days
I used to plead G simply because the solicitor told me that in this case the police want to teach me a lesson (this was pre CPS) and if I want to plead NG I will need to get a solicitor from outside the area.
No way would I fall for that today because I can afford a £10k hit (obviously so, flying an IO540-engined plane
) but I think most people would.
Would any lawyer here have an idea of what % of cases the CAA lose?
I also wonder what pleas were entered in those all-successful prosecutions?