‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?' It turns out that there is a practical answer to the oft-quoted Latin phrase. Local authorities will ‘guard the guardians'. Just ask the good folk of Scarborough. For sharp-eyed officials at the town hall in east Yorkshire have been credited with exposing Keith Shaw, a solicitor and deputy district judge, for attempting to subvert the planning process by submitting a string of fictitious letters in support of his own applications. Mr Shaw last week pleaded guilty to fraud offences spanning three years, and was fined and sentenced to 20 weeks' in prison suspended for two years. Things started when town hall officials became suspicious about correspondence, purporting to be from other members of the public, submitted in support of Mr Shaw's planning applications. It transpired that the qualified judge had used his enhanced knowledge of the legal system to attempt to mislead officials, who then notified the police. Usually, it falls to judges to explain the seriousness of criminal offences, but, in the circumstances, perhaps it was better to let PC Plod remind everybody that ‘no-one is above the law'. Even those who administer it.