Death crash driver back in jail
A YOUNG Shetland man who has been jailed twice for causing death by dangerous driving and smuggling thousands of pounds worth of drugs is back behind bars for driving while disqualified.
Ross Sutherland, aged 25, of Nylea, Port Arthur, Scalloway, was jailed for 56 months in 2007 after a close friend died in a car crash he caused while driving at speed the wrong way round a roundabout in Lerwick while drunk.
He was on a home visit from a young offenders institution in 2011 when he was arrested at Sumburgh airport for smuggling amphetamine worth £4,600 into the isles, landing him a further 16 month prison sentence.
On Thursday he appeared from custody at Lerwick Sheriff Court again, this time pleading guilty to driving around the town while disqualified and without insurance on 16 May, having been let out of jail on early release.
He also admitted being in possession of a small quantity of heroin at Lerwick’s Freefield car park on 27 April.
The court heard Sutherland had persuaded his 24 year friend James Garson, of Summerside, Walls, to let him drive his car, though his defence agent said he was in “no fit state” to refuse.
Garson was fined £600 and given eight penalty points for allowing his car to be used by Sutherland without a licence or insurance.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the fact that Sutherland was “disqualified for killing someone with a motor car” made this the most serious type of such offending.
Regarding Sutherland, the fiscal said the fact he had got behind the wheel of a car while disqualified for the original offence was “disgusting”.
Defending, Tommy Allan said it had not been easy for Sutherland to return to the community where he had caused the death of a young man.
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“He appreciates with the benefit of hindsight he needed a bit more help and he should have gone about getting help in the form of counselling,” he said, adding that he had the possibility of a job lined up before his most recent arrest.
As a result of his reoffending, the High Court had ordered Sutherland to carry out an extra 70 days of his original sentence.
On top of that Sheriff Philip Mann sentenced him to a further four months in prison for driving while disqualified, admonishing him on the drugs and insurance charges.
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