How to verify police search warrant

[s2bounce]

As the title says how can someone verify a police search warrant is valid, if it has been signed by a magistrat, how does one go about veryfing it is a valid search warrant.

[TheEnd]

I guess it would be a mix of a) read it and see, and b) trust in the fact that a dodgy warrant would be a real stupid thing for a police officer to use. I don't know if it would be a career ending sort of thing, but it wouldn't be far off.

[s2bounce]

A - I have read it
B - when I asked for the warrant they gave it at the end of the search, when I contacted the court that was named on the warrant they advised they could not recognise the magistrate that had signed the warrant.

[TheEnd]

Is that as simple as they couldn't make out the signature?

[anonymous-user]

It'd likely be prison time if someone were to forge a warrant. I expect the court has made the mistake not recognising the magistrate.

Go to the police station and ask to speak to the Inspector / call 101 and ask the same if you want some clarification.

[Mr Classic]

Pretty sure if the search warrant isn't legit then any evidence obtained is null and cannot be used in a trial?

[s2bounce]

A - I have read it
B - when I asked for the warrant they gave it at the end of the search, when I contacted the court that was named on the warrant they advised they could not recognise the magistrate that had signed the warrant.

[ED209]

Was it decently a warrant or was it a search authority signed by an inspector?

If the court don't know the magistrate, perhaps it was on out of hours warrant signed by an on call magistrate not necessarily from that court?

[agtlaw]

Mr Classic said:

Pretty sure if the search warrant isn't legit then any evidence obtained is null and cannot be used in a trial?

Pretty wrong. Sang, Khan, etc, etc, etc.

[Baryonyx]

Mr Classic said:

Pretty sure if the search warrant isn't legit then any evidence obtained is null and cannot be used in a trial?

But because this isn't an American Cop drama, you can forget about a dodgy warrant being used in the real world.

[Mr Classic]

Which is my point, no copper would use one...

[Steffan]

Baryonyx said:

Mr Classic said:

Pretty sure if the search warrant isn't legit then any evidence obtained is null and cannot be used in a trial?

But because this isn't an American Cop drama, you can forget about a dodgy warrant being used in the real world.

It would indeed be a very serious matter if this occurred in the UK and certainly career ending for the officers concerned. I doubt if it will prove to be a wrong un. More likely the Courts need more information to confirm the validity.

[Gafferjim]

But the real question is, Why have they searched your place? what have you "allegedly" been up to?

[Steffan]

Gafferjim said:

But the real question is, Why have they searched your place? what have you "allegedly" been up to?

Matter for the OP.

[Mermaid]

Steffan said:

Gafferjim said:

But the real question is, Why have they searched your place? what have you "allegedly" been up to?

Matter for the OP.

Absolutely

[nail_it]

Gafferjim said:

But the real question is, Why have they searched your place? what have you "allegedly" been up to?

Yes, spill the beans. This is PH. We're a nosey lot especially when someone needs advice

[Nigel Worc's]

He, (or she), may not have been up to anything.

Somebody residing at the address, (maybe an offspring, or even lodger), will certainly be suspected of being up to something.

A chap I know through work, a chap of Muslim persuasion, suffered this fate through anti terrorism stuff, he says he couldn't return to his home for several days.

[s2bounce]

Thank you for te replies, reason I ask is because it happened on a Sunday in the afternoon, so I guess they acted on some intelligence, but the person they were after does not live at my property. Magistrate signing out of warrant would explain why my local court can not find the magistrate named on the warrant.

[ED209]

s2bounce said:

Thank you for te replies, reason I ask is because it happened on a Sunday in the afternoon, so I guess they acted on some intelligence, but the person they were after does not live at my property. Magistrate signing out of warrant would explain why my local court can not find the magistrate named on the warrant.

If they were after a person, was it not just an arrest warrant as opposed to a search warrant?

[Martin4x4]

s2bounce said:

Thank you for te replies, reason I ask is because it happened on a Sunday in the afternoon, so I guess they acted on some intelligence, but the person they were after does not live at my property. Magistrate signing out of warrant would explain why my local court can not find the magistrate named on the warrant.

That sounds seriously out of order to me, if magistrates hand them out like that, then looks like we've lost the entire point of having them at all.