CRIME doesn’t pay. Just ask John Dewhurst. “Stay clear,” is his advice to anyone who cares to listen.

Hang on, don’t get the wrong idea.

John is the last in a long line of criminal lawyers in Darwen and, as he prepares for retirement in a few weeks’ time, he was in reflective mood.

“We’re a nationalised industry, these days,” he says.

“We’re having our fees cut back all the time and it’s going to get worse.

"In two or three years we’ll have to tender for work.”

The number of firms handling Legal Aid cases is dwindling steadily. It’s often not worth the effort.

John Dewhurst, 63, has been a criminal lawyer in his home town of Darwen for more than 40 years, but he’s not sorry to be retiring from his consultancy work at Watson Ramsbottom.

There are close on 30 solicitors specialising in court work in the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley area, but soon not one will be operating from Darwen.

Two solicitors’ practices have closed in Darwen since 2001 and the Watson and Ramsbottom firms amalgamated about five years ago.

Now there are more than 20 staff in the busy Railway Road office, although John is the only one doing criminal work.

He started his career with the local firm of (David) Watson and (Ted) Southworth in 1963 after leaving the Royal Masonic School in Herts.

In those days, young solicitors – Eddie Slinger, now Judge Slinger, was a contemporary in Darwen – did everything; divorce, probate, conveyancing, criminal work, debt collection. The lot.

Nowadays of course everyone specializes.

Will he miss it all? “I don’t think so,” he told me.

“It’s a lot different to my early days when the local police inspector handled most of the prosecutions.

"In the mid 80s the Crown Prosecution Service was launched after the Police and Criminal Evidence Act came into force and “it’s become a cushy number and a career path for a lot of young solicitors”.

Not many leave to join a private practice, he says.

John regrets the loss of Darwen Magistrates Court to Blackburn.

“We all knew each other. The police knew the villains.

"The solicitors knew the magistrates. Everybody knew the reporters.”

And he feels that the criminal justice system is now weighted towards the prosecution.

“It might be harder to prove cases nowadays, but just look at the enormous resources the police and the CPS have at their disposal. It’s often very difficult for the defence.”

He readily recalls his first murder case – a stabbing outside Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the old Co-op building, but he can still get animated over a driving case he’s been working on.

He might be looking forward to retirement, but he hasn’t lost any of his enthusiasm.

What’s he going to do? “Well, we’ve no thoughts of leaving Darwen,” he says.

“I’ll go walking and running on the moors and swimming at the new leisure centre when it finally opens. I’ll keep fit.”

He reckons it will be an antidote to his wife Cath’s excellent cooking. Especially her delicious cakes.