Efforts by the Ministry of Justice to increase use of the virtual court at Camberwell Green magistrates’ court in London have led to ‘chaos’ because the court list is overloaded, criminal solicitors allege.

For the last fortnight all overnight remands from the 20 London police stations which are participating in the scheme have been listed in the virtual court at Camberwell. The court has the capacity to deal with around 20 cases a day, but according to solicitors more than 40 are being listed, with the consequence that around half the cases end up being farmed out to other courts.

The virtual court pilot enables defendants to appear in court via videolink from the police station. Greg Stewart, defence representative on the London implementation committee for the pilot, said defendants are waiting longer at the police station, then being taken late to a different court from the one to which their court papers and solicitor have been sent.

‘It is creating chaos for clients, solicitors, court staff, the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, and adding cost and delay to the process,’ he added.

Ian Kelcey, chairman of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, said: ‘The stupidity of the arrangements means that the public’s money and the time of solicitors is being wasted.

‘It is a crass example of technology being undermined by a slavish desire to overload a system with work without a diary management system in place.’