Can ouo go to prison more than once for non-payment of CSA?

carlcumbria

Hello all,
I'm trying to find out if it's possible for the magistrates to send you to prison more than once for non-payment of CSA. I know it's not possible for normal crimes etc but don't know if non-payment of CSA falls into the same bracket.
I've already been given a suspended sentence of 42 days and to be honest I'm considering just going down just to get it over and done with, as far as I'm aware I'll only have to serve a half sentence with good behaviour so I'd be back home in 3 weeks..which right now looks better than dealing with all the CSA crap hanging over me for the next god-knows how many years.
Thanks for any help you can give folks, but to be honest I'm really after a solid yes/ no and answer not a guessing session.
Thanks, Carl

DUTR

If you do go, I don't think the arrears get written off, have you ever watched shawshank redemption? I hear they do naughty things to you in prison

swingaloo

So you would rather have a prison record?

kelloggs36

You will still owe the money when you come out. If you continue to rack up arrears, you can go down for the next period of arrears - you can't go down for the same period more than once.

Kimitatsu

You cant go down for the same crime more than once BUT prison is not an easy ride and you will still have to face all of the CSA stuff when you get out as well.

To get to a suspended sentance then you must have been ignoring this for some time, so rather than getting a prison record which will show up on CRB's forever even when it is spent, how about seeing if anyone on this board can help?

DUTR

Kimitatsu wrote: »

You cant go down for the same crime more than once BUT prison is not an easy ride and you will still have to face all of the CSA stuff when you get out as well.

To get to a suspended sentance then you must have been ignoring this for some time, so rather than getting a prison record which will show up on CRB's forever even when it is spent, how about seeing if anyone on this board can help?

I sort of admire the OP for showing they are not scared of the sanctions, it has to be costing the state much more to recover any contribution from them than whatever the contribution may be, it does not sound like they are having any sort of contact or parental involvment other than 'we want some money!'

swingaloo

it does not sound like they are having any sort of contact or parental involvment other than 'we want some money!'

What do you base that assumption on?

carlcumbria

DUTR wrote: »

I sort of admire the OP for showing they are not scared of the sanctions, it has to be costing the state much more to recover any contribution from them than whatever the contribution may be, it does not sound like they are having any sort of contact or parental involvment other than 'we want some money!'

Thanks for the honest reply, and you're correct I don't get to see my son anymore.
I basically fell out with his mum after she kept leaving for a few days at a time to go stay at a "male friends" house, so I decided to leave as it's obviously not the norm to take your kid and go and stay with another guy for days at a time, so it wasn't going to work. Anyhoo, I left and seen my son 5 nights per week initially, probably as he was only 1yr old or so at the time and she wasn't that great with him as a baby (I brought him up at home whilst she went to work when he was only 2 weeks old for the first 7 months of his life, it was a joy) and she got freedom, whereas I got what I wanted to (my son regularly) so that was fine by me....and it was with her too until I got another girlfriend some months later when she stopped me seeing him and forced me to take her to court.
I took her to court many times and eventually she was going to get commited to prison for not adhering to the courts orders (I won every single one incidentally) so decided to back off rather than watch my already upset son watch his mum go to prison for a few weeks at best before getting him back when she got out, if she went down at all.
I restarted court action when he was 5 as I decided he'd hopefully be old enough to understand, kinda, what was going on more than when he was only 2.5yrs old and seeing all the sh*t going on around him at handovers.
In total I spent £18k in legal fee's on 22 court cases and eventually sold my house to fund the case as I was working at the time (and paying CSA all the time too) and couldn't get legal aid when working. When the money from the house sale ran out I left the company I worked for and got £5k legal aid the next day..mental system huh!
It turned out the little guy had been told by his mum that I had died in a car crash so restarting contact was difficult, and the little guy didn't know he had 2 younger brothers too. All in all he dealt with it really well, the little man's my hero, and we seen him every other weekend as she'd been told she was definitely going down for a length of time (by a circuit judge in Crown Court..it had gone that far) from age 6 until about 9yr old, when she poisoned him against me in a way I've never been able to find out about.

I looked at restarting court action (I was informed by the courts as the previous court order was too old I'd have to start again kinda) but decided that as he was clearly so upset with real hatred for me by whatever she'd said that it was basically goinhg to foce him to come when he didn't want to, and ultimately I wanted to look out for on balance what was in HIS best interests, not mine and his brothers.
Now he's 14 and after seeing him for a brief period when he was 12yr old, when he would, secretly and on his own initiative, come round literally every day to see us all. She must have found out and stopped him coming round to see us.

Sooooo, THAT'S why I don't give the cow money. I've never done anything wrong yet watched as she's dripped poison into his mind about us (he even blanks his own half-brother in school) and now he literally runs when I bump into him in town etc, even though I've not once done anything wrong.

So, with the prospect of prison hanging over me forever whilst I pay off the money from when I didn't see him. as we're on a really loow income now in a council house etc, I'd happily do the 3 weeks, or 6 if needs be. Sod it, why not if it gets it over and done with!

Anyway, back to the main topic, will I definitely only do the time once for the money owed in that period?

Carl

Mrs_justjohn

YOu can not go to prison twice for the same crime. I.E if you don't pay CSA and you go to prison when you come out you have to pay. If you still don't pay then you will be tried again as it is a seperate crime.

Your question is like saying...

If I murder someone and go to prison - once I am released after 20 years I can murder as many people as I like as I can't be imprisoned again for the same crime??
It doesn't make sense - it is not the same offence but a different criminal event..

Mrs_justjohn

DUTR wrote: »

it does not sound like they are having any sort of contact or parental involvment other than 'we want some money!'

A rather sweeping statement....so all single mums that are chasing child support have denied access?? I don't think so

carlcumbria

Mrs_justjohn wrote: »

YOu can not go to prison twice for the same crime. I.E if you don't pay CSA and you go to prison when you come out you have to pay. If you still don't pay then you will be tried again as it is a seperate crime.

Your question is like saying...

If I murder someone and go to prison - once I am released after 20 years I can murder as many people as I like as I can't be imprisoned again for the same crime??
It doesn't make sense - it is not the same offence but a different criminal event..

Can I ask if you know this for 100% sure? Are you a legal worker?
As mentioned in the first post I need definite answers and not guesses. Thanks, Carl