A KENT magistrate used his farewell presentation ceremony to take a hard-hitting swipe at changes in the justice system.

Adressing present and past colleagues in a packed court at Sittingbourne Alan Taylor criticised various aspects of the system.

He said: "I expected my retirement from the bench to be a poignant occasion, but circumstances have made me feel more like a deserter. I am deserting from the justice system under threat.

"There was a time when newspapers headlined inconsistencies of sentencing by magistrates. Recent headlines have been:

* First-time offenders go to prison for stealing a mobile phone

* First-time offenders go to prison for five years, for carrying a replica hand-gun.

* Burglars do not go to prison - they are 'rehabilitated'

Mr Taylor went on: "In their wildest moments, magistrates never matched these inconsistencies. Knee-jerk responses to headline hysteria is never justice.

"Justice is about carefully weighing in the balance; the offence, the offender, the victim, the circumstances and the social environment.

"This requires that there is freedom from inflexible rules of sentencing and that the magistrate or judge is able to be sensitive to local conditions. I am deserting from a fetish for centralisation.

"Bills currently before Parliament will undermine the connections between magistrates, their staff, court users and the local community. These links deserve to be strengthened - not destroyed.

"I am deserting from the extinction of my bench. New proposals for Kent divide the whole county into just three large areas. The bench on which I have served is to be divided up and arbitrarily split between two of these areas.

"Inevitably all magistrates will become more remote. They will be less able to take note of issues of local importance. Swale will no longer have a magistrates' bench.

"But there is poignancy. I shall miss my colleagues and the staff. In fact, all who make the system work. I admire them greatly for their professionalism and their dedication.

"I only wish that I could stay to help them fight against the steady erosion of a system of justice that is the envy of the world."

Mr Taylor, of Hernhill, near Faversham, had been a magistrate at Sittingbourne since 1977. Previously he had been a magistrate at Farnham in Surrey since 1973.

He was also a recent chairman of Kent Magistrates Court Committee and was head of procurement at Abbott Laboratories in Queenborough, Sheppey. All magistrates have to retire at 70 - a milestone Mr Taylor has just reached.