Personation of a juror is a common law offense in England and Wales in which a person impersonates a juror in a civil or criminal trial, entering the jury box and taking the oath under another person's name. It carries unlimited imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both, and also constitutes contempt of court; no corrupt motive or specific intent to deceive needs to be shown beyond the act of taking another person's place, and it is not a defense to claim ignorance of wrongdoing. If a juror is found to have been impersonated the trial in which that person sat may be voided, and section 18(3) of the Juries Act 1974 is the modern statutory reference point for the offense.
Facts
Typical PenaltyUnlimited imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine (England and Wales) 1 Elements of OffenseA person enters the jury box and takes the oath in someone else's name; no corrupt motive or specific intention to deceive need be proved, and it is no defence that the defendant did not know the act to be wrong 1 Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: England, found in there.
Sources
1. Personation of a juror, Wikipedia
Lead, first paragraph
As a common law offence it is punishable by unlimited imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.
Lead, second paragraph
no requirement to prove that the defendant had any corrupt motive or a specific intention to deceive other than the fact that they entered the jury-box and took the oath in someone else's name
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.