Last updated 19:44, Thursday, 31 July 2008

Workington solicitor TIM FROST is used to rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of the criminal justice system, but, he tells Gill Kerrush, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth and loves the sense of community in West Cumbria...

TIM Frost is still coming down to earth. The popular solicitor says his phone has been red hot for the past few weeks, ever since the announcement that he had been awarded the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List - and he can’t walk through Workington without being stopped by friends and acquaintances who want to add their good wishes.

Not that this is a problem to him. He is gregarious and affable, and even in the sombre surroundings of the West Cumbrian magistrates’ courts in which he operates mainly as a defence solicitor, his clients will welcome him with a friendly greeting or to say goodbye with a rueful but genuine ‘thanks Tim’ whatever the outcome of their case.

Tim will receive his medal for his contribution to the criminal justice system in West Cumbria - but he is about as far away from the traditional image of the stuffy family solicitor as you can get.

Direct and down to earth, he speaks to his clients in the same manner as he speaks to legal luminaries such as the Lord Chancellor or to Lord Leveson, the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales - both of whom he has come into contact with in his work with the Simple, Speedy, Summary Justice scheme for which he was nominated for his award.

The ground-breaking scheme aims to ensure that guilty pleas are dealt with in court at the first opportunity and that not guilty pleas proceed to trial with the fewest possible hearings.

It was pioneered in the magistrates’ courts in Workington and Whitehaven; in Coventry and at two London courts and has now been adopted nationally.

Tim says: “I was quite sceptical when it started. My concern was that any new system should help the clients - but it works very well. The benefit to the defendants is that their cases get dealt with more quickly.

“Whatever they have done, they are human beings with the same worries as the rest of us and they don’t want things hanging over them for a long time.

“The Cumbria Criminal Justice Board hosted a seminar to explain the scheme.

“It put us on the national map and allowed other parts of the country to learn from our experience and it has brought the Government’s attention to the fact that the defence are an important part of the criminal justice system.

“Now we are more involved and the co-operation is to everyone’s benefit.”

The SSSJ scheme has led to a 63 per cent reduction in the time taken from arrest to charge and disposal and has won national awards for courts staff who helped set it up.

Tim has worked for law firm Kevin J Commons and Co for 12 years and is full of praise for the way in which his employers have supported him in the project.

He says: “It has taken up a lot of time and they have been very good by allowing me to take the time to be involved.

“It has been very interesting and has allowed me to meet a lot of people I otherwise wouldn’t have met. Being able to speak my mind to people like Lord Leveson, the Attorney General and the Lord Chancellor has been a unique opportunity.”

So how did Tim set off on the road which led him to rub shoulders with the great and the good?

He certainly wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth - quite the opposite.

One of eight children, he was raised in a large and loving family in a council house in the Briercliffe area of Burnley. His father worked for Burnley Borough Council and the large household included a ninth child, a cousin fostered by his parents, Eileen and Walter, who sadly were to die within days of each other.

Tim credits his parents with the success of their large family, which includes a consultant psychiatrist, a nursing sister and a brother who became mayor of Burnley and who was awarded the MBE several years ago for his services to the Briercliffe community.

He says: “My parents saw education as important and they gave up a lot for us. Most of us went on to further education and I am proud to belong to a generation for which it was free - these days, my parents just wouldn’t have been able to afford it.”

He does his own bit to help with the education of the up-and-coming generation by being involved with the Mock Trials Scheme, a national initiative organised by the Citizenship Foundation which has been running in Cumbria for many years.

He says: “It’s very important because it gives children the opportunity to become involved in the court system in a good way. They often only know about it through negative things they read and it gives them a positive experience of the criminal justice system. They love learning their parts and playing them out in a real court.”

After his own education at St Theodore’s RC High School in Burnley and a degree at Newcastle University, Tim served his articles in the city before a brief spell as a trainee court clerk in Blyth.

But his family has strong ties to West Cumbria and it was always part of his career plan to move here.

His mother, born Eileen Foy, was from Cleator Moor and he has many relatives in the area, including his mum’s cousin, Peter Connolly, who was mayor of Copeland a few years ago.

At university he became friends with Mike Little, now a partner at Whitehaven solicitors Goughs, and it was through him that he came to work in West Cumbria in 1989.

Tim said: “Mike’s parents, Joe and Elsie, became like a second set of parents to me and I was accepted into their family like a son.

“When my parents died, they assumed an even more parental role. I consider Mike and his brothers, Paul and David, to be my adoptive family and I am privileged to call them my brothers. It ties me even more into the fabric of West Cumbria.”

In his leisure time Tim loves to travel - although a trip to Australia earlier this year ended with him being hospitalised with viral pneumonia after he collapsed on a plane between Adelaide and Perth.

“It was a quick way of losing a stone-and-a-half - but I wouldn’t recommend it!” he laughs.

His other real passion is railways and he has driven steam locomotives on the famous Severn Valley Line.

“It’s the most civilised way to travel and I hope that plans to make West Cumbria into an Energy Coast will provide funding for our coastal service which will make a real difference,” he says.

But most of all, he loves West Cumbria and its people.

“I enjoy seeing different places and cultures because we can be a little isolated here. But you have these experiences and then you realise that we have so much on our own doorstep. My favourite place in the world is Wasdale, and that’s where I want my ashes to be scattered when I pop my clogs.

“But there’s nothing better than being at home in St Bees and being able to go into town and meet and chat to people. That’s worth more than anything money can buy.

“West Cumbrians are the warmest people you can hope to meet. They are straightforward and they will make their views known, but they are kind and generous.”

Tim is looking forward to receiving his award at Buckingham Palace.

He said: “I’m a bit embarrassed because I think of all the other people who deserved an honour - but I’m really dead proud.

“I’ll probably come down to earth some time in 2010.”