A former Black Watch sergeant earning £50,000 per year was handed a lifeline by a sympathetic sheriff who refused to accept a written guilty plea in his absence.
Kirkcaldy father-of-three Jim Smith was already on a precarious 11 penalty points when he penned a letter to Portree Sheriff Court admitting a local speeding offence.
However, in an unusual move, former Tayside sheriff Kevin Veal didn’t simply proceed to banning the 48-year-old, instead instructing him to attend court in person with a solicitor.
Mr Smith stood to lose his well paid job and £170,000 house, making his nurse wife and teenage daughter homeless.
The former building site labourer – who rose to be a travelling site manager after years in the army – told the court he “served Queen and country” for 17 years, seeing action during that time in many of the world’s hot-spots.
His letter he stated he would simply accept a driving ban was inevitable but pointed out the consequences for his family.
After reading the plea and advising Smith take legal advice, Sheriff Veal said: “You have a lot to lose. I am here to see that justice is done.”
The sheriff told Smith that if he could show a driving ban would cause his family “exceptional hardship” he might escape a disqualification.
Dressed in a smart suit, the former soldier attended court with a military veteran’s badge in his left lapel accompanied by defence lawyer Duncan Burd.
He admitted speeding on March 22 on the A87 at Breakish, on Skye, doing 55mph in a 40mph limit.
Smith of Sir Thomas Elder Way, Kirkcaldy, told the sheriff he thought he was on a 60mph stretch of road and had set his cruise control at 55mph.
Mr Burd said: “If banned from driving my client will lose his job.
“His wife’s salary as a nurse is not sufficient to pay the £900-a-month mortgage.
“There is still ten years of it to run and he still has £100,000 to pay-off.
“The older two children are in the services but his 18-year-old daughter works part-time in retail and lives at home with her parents.
“The whole family would be made homeless by a roads ban.”
Fiscal Stewart Maciver said the test of ‘exceptional hardship’ was a high one and argued the loss of a job and inability to pay a mortgage was not necessarily enough.
A supporting letter from Smith’s employers, Elgin-based Robertson Group, was read to the court.
“The letter does not actually say you would lose your job,” Mr Maciver said.
“It says, ‘it would be very difficult to maintain Jim’s employment’.”
However Sheriff Veal took the family situation into account.
He said: “I will not ban you but impose three penalty points and a £200 fine.”
“If you find yourself in this position again you will not be able to play the same violin.
“You will have to come up with something different.”
