Court / Sheriff court round-up 15 September 2021

A MAN who previously admitted driving while almost seven times the legal alcohol limit has pleaded guilty to a second drink driving charge.

Matthew Willmott, 48, of Lower Voe, made the plea at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday in relation to an incident on 28 August this year at a layby on the A970 near Voe.

He was in charge of a vehicle with 87 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.

He had already pleaded guilty to driving with 146 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath on various roads in Lerwick a week earlier on 21 August.

Sentence was deferred until 13 October for a criminal justice social work report to be prepared.

 A THIRTY eight year old man has been fined £400 for assaulting another man after a disagreement within a house spilled out into a lane in Lerwick town centre.

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Thomas Hall, of Hill Grind, Lerwick, pleaded guilty to repeatedly punching the man on the head and body to his injury at Pitt Lane on 25 March this year.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the incident occurred shortly after 10.15pm when Hall, who had just finished work, attended an address where his girlfriend and another couple had been drinking alcohol.

A dispute between the other couple ensued, which Hall became involved in, culminating in a police officer witnessing Hall assaulting the other man outside the house.

The victim sustained several small cuts and a bleeding lip but did not require medical attention, Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday.

Defence agent Neil McRobert said his client felt that he had also been assaulted during the scuffle, though he did not seek to press charges, and accepted that he was guilty as libelled.

A TWENTY seven year old woman has admitted assaulting two female nurses at Gilbert Bain Hospital in an incident last month.

Julia Roberts-Harnett, who stays on the Shetland mainland, pleaded guilty to assaulting, obstructing or hindering a nurse, shouting, struggling, kicking out at her, scratching and attempting to bite her on 15 August.

On the same date she assaulted another nurse at the same Lerwick hospital in a similar manner, also repeatedly kicking her on the body.

Sheriff Iain Cruickshank deferred sentence until 13 October for a criminal justice social work report to be prepared.

A MAN who admitted driving without insurance has been allowed to keep his licence but fined £200.

Twenty six year old Lee Hamilton, of Lerwick’s Gremmasgaet, admitted using a vehicle at the town’s South Lochside on 15 May this year.

Sheriff Iain Cruickshank accepted defence agent Tommy Allan’s argument that there was a special defence for his client, who is dyslexic and struggles with filling out forms.

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His partner had taken out an insurance policy on his behalf, but there was a single-letter mistake in the registration plate – leaving the vehicle Hamilton was driving technically uninsured.

Allan said his client had been “driving in the honest belief that he was insured at the time”.

Sheriff Cruickshank said it was “quite clearly a genuine error” and opted not to impose six penalty points, which would have resulted in Hamilton being disqualified.