I did jury duty about 20 years ago. In Britain you are called up for a period of two weeks and you sit on more than one case in that time. The first case was for fiddling expenses (about £3) but the second case was for fraud. The defendant was obtaining goods by pretending to be the King of Zululand.
He had received two watches worth about £11k from Watches of Switzerland. When the employee from the shop was asked if he had asked the defendant to prove his identity he said 'oh no! you don't do that with Royalty'
He was finally caught trying to get tickets to Canada by pretending to be a doctor attached to the United Uations. He claimed to be related to Andrew Young who was then the US Ambassador to the UN.
In the jury room we quickly decided he was guilty but were embarassed to return to the court after only 15 minutes. Someone produced a thermos of coffee and another had tea and some biscuits appeared. We spent 30 minutes trying the expensive watches on and testing his medical equipment (patella hammer for reflexes, listening to our hearts with the stethoscope).
During the trial the defendant had broken down in tears and I thought that being in prison was going to be a terrible ordeal for him. Imagine my suprise when his previous was read out and I discovered that in the 13 years he had been in the country he had only been out of prison for 2 weeks. On one occasion he had been released in the morning and then arrested in the afternoon for trying to con some railway tickets.
Two other funny things happened. One day one of my colleagues on the jury interrupted the trial three times in one afternoon to have a pee. When he returned the third time the judge called him to the front of the court and asked if he had been to the pub at lunchtime. 'Yes', was the repliy. 'And how many pints did you have?' the judge asked cordially. 'Four' said the juror. 'Okay then', the judge said, 'I'll fine you £10 per pint for contempt of court'.
Similarly one woman was late back after lunch and the judge asked why she was late. 'I was in Harrods shopping' she said. 'Did you buy anything nice?' asked the judge. 'Yes' said the woman 'I bought a dress'. 'Let's see it then' said the judge. The woman produced the dress and showed the court. 'Very nice, and how much did that cost you?' '£40' was the reply.
You guessed it, £40 contempt of court.
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