You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
JCIO 50/26
Date: 11 September 2026
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said:
The Lord Chancellor, with the Lady Chief Justice’s agreement, has removed Mr Robin Coombes, of the Cardiff Bench, from office for failing, without reasonable excuse, to complete the compulsory core training required of a magistrate.
Facts
On appointment, magistrates sign a declaration and undertaking which includes a commitment to complete all compulsory core training. The undertaking also provides that a magistrate should resign if they fail to complete that training within the required timescale without an acceptable reason.
The summary process under the Judicial Conduct (Magistrates) Rules 2023 enables a conduct advisory committee secretary to recommend a magistrate’s removal from office without further investigation where the magistrate has failed, without reasonable excuse, to complete compulsory core training.
The Wales Conduct Advisory Committee recommended that Mr Coombes should be removed from office after he failed to complete three compulsory core training requirements within the required timescales:
• Domestic Abuse Training, designated as essential training for 2024–2025;
• Imposition Guidelines e-learning, designated as essential training as part of the core training provisions for 2025–2026; and
• Sentencing Act 2026 e-learning, designated as essential training as part of the core training provisions for 2025–2026.
Mr Coombes did not engage with correspondence from the Advisory Committee about the outstanding training requirements.
Mr Coombes' representations
In response to the JCIO, Mr Coombes described the recommendation as disproportionate in light of his long service as a magistrate. He stated that he had not been contacted through his personal email address or by telephone, accepted the seriousness of the position, and offered to complete the outstanding training.
Decision
The Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice agreed with the recommendation to remove Mr Coombes from office without further investigation. They did not accept that Mr Coombes had provided a reasonable excuse for his failure to complete the compulsory training. Mr Coombes had been contacted through his e-Judiciary account, which is the official channel for judicial communications and which he was responsible for monitoring. They also considered that his offer to complete the training at this stage came too late, given the previous warning, further correspondence, and the extended period over which the training remained outstanding. In those circumstances, they concluded that removal from office was the appropriate and proportionate sanction.
Sanctions for misconduct by judicial office-holders are set out in the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. They are, in order of severity: formal advice, formal warning, reprimand and removal from office.
For more information about the Office, including details on how to make a complaint against a judicial office holder, you can visit the JCIO website at: Judicial Conduct Investigations website
