PENDLE'S MP Gordon Prentice has found himself in court but he has done nothing wrong.

The Labour backbencher has become one of the first MPs in England and Wales to be chosen for jury service.

Mr Prentice will go from debating the law at Westminster to dispensing it during his spell, which started yesterday.

MPs, doctors, lawyers and judges were exempt from jury service before the rules were relaxed as part of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

Mr Prentice said he was pleased the law had changed, giving him a chance to experience jury service.

He said: "Serving as a juror is an important civic responsibility and 250,000 jurors are required each year.

"Yet I am told that some two-thirds of people summoned for jury service avoid doing it, which is a sad reflection on a system that everyone professes to believe in.

"At least the 2003 Act removed the excusal as of right' from jury service for many professions.

"I am pleased that MPs can now be joined on the jurors' benches by doctors, lawyers and even judges."

Mr Prentice will spend at least the next two weeks on jury service at Blackfriars Crown Court in London and possibly longer if he is chosen for a lengthy trial.

He was summonsed because he has a home in London as well as Pendle.

The backbencher was chosen for the task earlier this year but was allowed to postpone it until Parliament broke for the summer.

Under law, anyone aged between 18 and 70 who has lived in England, Wales, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands for at least five years is eligible for jury service.

People certified as mentally ill, those who have ever been sentenced to life in prison or convicted of a criminal offence in the past 10 years, as well as people on bail, are banned from serving.