Wicks: an enforcement notice and a later prosecution
Regina v Wicks [1997] UKHL 21; [1998] AC 92 is an important warning about leaving the challenge to an enforcement notice until a prosecution for failing to comply with it.
The House of Lords held that allegations of bad faith or improper motives in issuing a formally valid, unquashed notice could not be used as a defence in those criminal proceedings. The correct challenge had to be brought through the appropriate procedure.
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- Neutral citation
- [1997] UKHL 21; [1998] AC 92
- Court
- House of Lords
- Judgment date
- 21st May 1997
- Judge
- Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Jauncey of Tullichettle, Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hoffmann and Lord Hope of Craighead
What happened to Mr Wicks
Mr Wicks owned a former storehouse in Margate. After storm damage, he undertook rebuilding works. Thanet District Council considered that the works produced a different building and required planning permission.
The council issued an enforcement notice. Mr Wicks appealed, but his planning grounds were rejected. He did not carry out the steps required by the notice and was prosecuted for non-compliance.
He then sought to argue that the council’s decision to issue the notice had been affected by bad faith, improper motives and irrelevant considerations. The criminal court refused to entertain that defence. The House of Lords dismissed his further appeal.
The statutory scheme determined the answer
The court examined the detailed enforcement code rather than applying an unrestricted rule that any unlawful public act may always be challenged in any later proceedings.
The Act provided a statutory appeal against the notice. Section 285 restricted the reopening of matters which could be challenged through that appeal process.
Other public-law complaints, such as bad faith or bias in the decision to issue the notice, were not thereby made available as a defence to the criminal charge. The court treated those residual grounds as matters for judicial review.
A formally valid and unquashed notice had to be obeyed
For the offence being considered, ‘enforcement notice’ meant a notice which formally complied with the statutory requirements and had not been quashed on appeal or judicial review.
There was no dispute that Mr Wicks had received such a notice or that he had failed to comply. His proposed allegations about the council’s motives did not answer that charge.
The point is not that an unlawful decision can never be challenged. It is that the available grounds, forum and timing cannot be ignored merely because criminal proceedings have subsequently begun.
Wicks is not a universal rule about every defective notice
The judgment distinguishes formal validity from other grounds of challenge and stresses the importance of the particular statutory framework. It should not be reduced to a statement that every document labelled an enforcement notice is necessarily valid.
The court also declined to adopt a general theory governing all challenges to every statutory order or byelaw. Its conclusion depended on the planning-enforcement scheme before it.
Read this alongside Miller-Mead when considering notice defects and the historical distinction between invalidity and nullity. The issues and powers in the two cases are not identical.
The practical lesson
A recipient should identify promptly whether the complaint belongs in an enforcement appeal, a court challenge, or another available procedure. Waiting for prosecution is not a safe substitute.
The judgment contains historical legislation, time limits and appeal-ground numbering. A current case requires the current provisions and procedural deadlines to be checked, rather than copied from this older decision.
Read the Wicks judgment
Gold Members can read the complete House of Lords judgment in the protected case-law library.
Wicks Case Law Page Updated: 12th September 2026