Criminal Law & Practice in Scotland
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5703000403 |
| Date | 01 October 1957 |
| Published date | 01 October 1957 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
236
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
sentence for 12 months.
Had
quarter sessions given a conditional dis-
charge, the defendant, if he had
not
committed afurther offence within
12 months, would have been free of the charge and it could not have
been used against him as a previous conviction; if he had committed
another offence within that time, he could have been brought back.
As it was, the defendant had been let out not on bail,
and
the whole
matter was in the air. Sometimes at the Central Criminal Court,
Middlesex quarter sessions, and Liverpool, sentence was postponed
for further inquiries to be made until the next sessions, but a suspended
sentence, said the Court, was not yet known in this country. As there
was provision in the Criminal Justice Act, 1948, for conditional dis-
charge, that was the method which should have been adopted, or the
defendant should have been bound over or put on probation. The
Court could do nothing about the postponed sentence in R. v. Rowlands
but said that it was not desirable and that it was not a satisfactory
state of affairs.
Criminal
Law
&
Practice
in
Scotland
ROAD
TRAFFIC
ACT-PUBLIC
PLACE
Anderson v. Valentine, 1957, S.L.T. (Notes) 27.
IN dealing with statutory contraventions one very often finds that all
the elements necessary to constitute the offence are present, but the
question arises whether the particular locus of the offence is covered by
the statute. Certain offences can only be committed in a road or street,
and then one is forced to look at the definition in the act to find out if
the locus is covered. In this case the very short question was whether
the locus of the offence was a "public place" within the meaning of
section 15 of the Road Traffic Act, 1930. Evidence was given that the
driver of the vehicle was driving it and that because of drink he was
incapable of having proper control of it. The offence, however, was
committed in a car park at an agricultural show. The park in question
was a grass field used for the grazing of sheep, and was only being used
as a car park for the duration of the show. There was only one entrance,
which was also the exit, and it was an ordinary field. Motorists using
the car park were charged a fee of
lOs.,
which was paid to an attendant
in the field. The Sheriff-Substitute before whom the case was taken
refused to convict because he did not think the locus was covered by
the section. He based this opinion on the restricted right which the
public had to use the field.
Being dissatisfied with this decision, the Crown appealed. The High
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