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Electing to go to the Crown Court - with the intention of ultimately pleading guilty - is done on occasion for very good reason. Borderline custody cases are more likely to end in custody in the magistrates' court than up the road. Nothing worse than hearing a clerk "advise" magistrates that a case is "just within" their sentencing powers. To dodge the amateurs in favour of a professional judge is the right call more often than people might think.