Euan Mcwilliam Ross V. Procurator Fiscal, Aberdeen
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judge | Lord Uist,Lady Dorrian,Lord Carloway |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] HCJAC 82 |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
| Docket Number | XJ607/09 |
| Year | 2009 |
| Date | 22 October 2009 |
| Published date | 22 October 2009 |
| APPEAL COURT, HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY | |
| Lord Carloway Lady Dorrian Lord Uist | [2009] HCJAC 82 Appeal No: XJ607/09 OPINION OF THE COURT delivered by LORD CARLOWAY in NOTE OF APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE by EUAN McWILLIAM ROSS Appellant; against PROCURATOR FISCAL, ABERDEEN Respondent: _______ |
Appellant: CM Mitchell; Barony Law Practice
Respondent: I MacSporran AD; Crown Agent
22 October 2009
[1] At a continued first calling of the summary complaint against the appellant on 6 March 2009, the appellant pled guilty by letter to a contravention of section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. The offence occurred on 19 October 2008 on the Oldmeldrum to Newmacher Road. Two cars were stationary behind a third vehicle, which was waiting to turn right across the oncoming traffic. The appellant approached the line of traffic at a speed of 60 miles per hour. He was unable to stop and crashed into the first car, which crashed into the second car. The appellant's car was written off and the damage to the other two cost £4,000 and £1,500 to repair. The appellant's passenger sustained a fracture to the right wrist and left hand. Those in the two stationary cars had minor injuries.
[2] The appellant was aged 17 at the time of the offence. He is single and works as an apprentice mechanic, earning about £200 net per week. He was a first offender. The Sheriff fined him £500, discounted for the early plea from £750. He imposed seven penalty points; the higher mid level of the range from 3 to disqualification. This resulted in the revocation of the appellant's licence under the Road Traffic (New Drivers) Act 1995. The Sheriff did not apply any discount to the number of penalty points. In so acting, he followed Stewart v Griffiths 2005 SCCR 291, a two judge sentence appeal in which Lord Osborne delivered a short ex tempore Opinion of the Court which included the following:
"...a person who pleads guilty with the result that public resources are saved, as happened in this case, can reasonably expect a discount to be recognised... and...that ought to have been done in this case. We shall quash the fine of £450 and in its place substitute a fine of £350. We are not persuaded that there is any cause to interfere with the decision as regards penalty points. Penalty points in our view stand in a different position to a pecuniary penalty and are in the nature of a warning to an accused as regards their future driving".
[3] Leave to appeal in this case was granted at second sift only on the question of discount. The sift judges remarked:
"...in Wheatley's Road Traffic Law, 4th edition at paragraph 8.13.1 the learned author points out that arguably penalty points may be discounted and at footnote 3 refers to Stewart and explains that many sentence appeals have resulted in reduction of points to reflect early pleas".
[4] However, it was argued by the appellant that a discount ought to have been applied having regard to the Court's decisions on disqualification; in particular Rennie v Frame 2005 SCCR 608. That was a three judge bench in which it was decided that there could, in certain cases, be a discount in the length of a disqualification because one component of a period of disqualification might be punishment and that component therefore ought to be discounted in...
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