Boustead v McLeod
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 28 March 1979 |
| Date | 28 March 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 14. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
JC
Lords Cameron, Kissen, Dunpark.
Evidence in criminal cases—Productions—Driving while disqualified—Admissibility of extract conviction which contained reference to a conviction on a charge irrelevant to proof of the complaint under investigation—Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (cap. 21), sec. 357.
The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975, sec. 357, makes certain provisions where an accused in a summary prosecution has been previously convicted of any offence and the prosecutor has decided to lay a previous conviction before the Court. Sec. 357 (5) provides: "Nothing in this section shall prevent evidence of previous convictions being led in causa where such evidence is competent in support of a substantive charge."
The appellant was charged and convicted of driving a motor car while under disqualification, contrary to sec. 99 (b) if the Road Traffic Act 1972, and of driving without insurance, contrary to sec. 143 (1) of the 1972 Act. During the trial two police officers gave evidence of a previous conviction which recorded the fact that he had been disqualified from driving. The extract recorded that "the offence of which the appellant was convicted" contained two charges, (1) contravention of the Road Traffic Act 1972, sec. 5 (1), and (2) public mischief (wasting the time of the police). Objection was taken to the admissibility of this extract on the ground that it contained details of a conviction which was of such prejudicial effect as to vitiate all further proceedings since a conviction other than that required to prove the matter of disqualification was disclosed in the extract. The Sheriff repelled the objection. The appellant asked for a stated case. It was argued on his behalf that the production of an extract conviction which contained reference to conviction on a charge or charges which were irrelevant to proof of the complaint under investigation was fatal to the conviction on that complaint.
Held, allowing the appeal, that the extract conviction had been wrongly admitted, that its admission had introduced a fatal flaw into the proceedings and that consequently the appellant's conviction in the present case could not stand.
Barrie Hughes Boustead was charged in the Sheriff Court at Kilmarnock on a complaint at the instance of John Leslie M'Leod, Procurator-fiscal. The complaint set forth inter alia that "on 11th July 1978, on the road in Shawalton Road, Irvine, Cunninghame District, Strathclyde (1) you, being a person disqualified under the provisions of the Road Traffic Act 1972 from holding or obtaining a licence to drive a motor vehicle of any class or description, having been disqualified on 10th November 1977 at the Sheriff Court, Kilmarnock, for the period of one year, did, while so disqualified, drive a motor vehicle, namely motor car registered No. WUV 220G; contrary to section 99 (b) of the Road Traffic Act 1972… (3) you did use said motor car WUV 220G without there being in force in relation to the use of the vehicle by you such a policy of...
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