In the Scottish Courts
| Published date | 01 July 1941 |
| Date | 01 July 1941 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002201834100500305 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Scottish
Courts
CHARGES-CUMULATIVE
OR
ALTERNATIVE?
THE
inclusion of two or more charges in a single complaint
(summons) isadistinctive feature of summary pro-
cedure in Scotland. Such charges may be either cumulative
or alternative and may be laid either at common law or under
statute or both. So an accused may be called upon to face a
complaint in which he is charged successively with
(I)
an
act of theft, (2) a contravention of the Licensing Acts, and
(3) an assault. Equally he may be charged, in one complaint,
with (a) reckless
driving-Road
Traffic Act, 1930, section
II,
or alternatively (b) careless
driving-section
12. In the normal
case, alternatives must clearly appear on the face of the com-
plaint;
but
certain alternatives are implied.
If
an accused
be
charged with theft, he is impliedly charged, as an alter-
native, with
reset;
and if he be charged with acompleted
crime, he is, in effect, charged alternatively with the attempt
(Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1887, sections 59 and 61)
-and
other instances might be given.
Recently, areport appeared in the press of a prosecution
in the Sheriff Court at
Jedburgh
in
which-if
the case was
correctly
reported-a
garage proprietor pled guilty to a
complaint that, during the hours of darkness, he failed to
immobilize three cars in his garage and failed to have the
premises locked.
(The
charge was presumably laid under the
Motor
Vehicles (Control) Order, 1940.)
It
appeared
that
about 10.45 p.m. on
8th
April the police found the doors of
the garage open, no one in attendance, and on the premises
three cars which had not been immobilized.
In
acomment in The Scots Law Times of 17th May, a
226
To continue reading
Request your trial