Dangerous Driving Fort William Sheriff Court

We have a saying in the office that there is no such thing as an off duty cop. So many cases involving allegations of dangerous driving on country roads start off by way of a report from off duty police officers that you would think they get paid overtime! Dangerous driving prosecutions regularly feature in the Fort William Sheriff Court and, more often than not, involve allegations of high speeds and poorly judged overtaking manoeuvres.

This particular case involved an allegation that our client had driven dangerously on the A82 by overtaking a heavy goods vehicle when unsafe to do so, causing motor vehicles travelling on the opposing carriageway to take evasive action in order to avoid a collision. The Crown sought to rely upon the evidence of an off duty Police officer who was riding his motor cycle towards Fort William and the driver of the HGV. Both witnesses provided statements supportive of the Crown allegation that the accused was driving dangerously.The unusual feature of the case was that the accused was not from Scotland and Police officers from Cumbria had been instructed to speak to the accused and follow procedures in relation to s.172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, and s.1 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988. As a consequence of this, and due a lack of identification evidence from the incident itself, we were able to make certain representations to the Crown which resulted in the case being treated as not called.