Dangerous driver who caused horrific accident banned for almost four years

A YOUNG man from Sandwick who caused “horrendous” injuries to a friend when he smashed his car into a crash barrier near Quarff a year ago escaped being sent to prison when he appeared for sentencing at Lerwick Sheriff Court.

Shyran Batziris pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving at a court hearing in November last year.

On Wednesday, the 20-year-old was disqualified from driving for three years and nine months, and put under supervision for 18 months.

He was also ordered to stay at his home address at Houlland Lea between the hours of 8pm and 6am for the next six months.

The court was told during an earlier hearing how Batziris had picked up his friend from the Laxo ferry terminal on 10 January last year and then drove dangerously and at excessive speeds before losing control and crashing his vehicle on the A970 near Quarff.

His passenger sustained serious injuries to both his legs and had to cut free from the wreckage of the car by the fire and rescue service, while Batziris himself escaped with relatively minor injuries.

During the November hearing, procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie described how surgeons at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary worked for 12 hours to repair the damage to both legs.

Speaking in mitigation in court on Wednesday, Batziris’s defence solicitor Mr Nicolson said his client had only been 19 years of age when the accident happened and, while driving too fast for the weather and road conditions, implied that young people were often unable to fully consider the impact of their actions.

He said there was a very low risk that Batziris would re-offend and encouraged the sheriff to follow the Scottish guidelines for sentencing young people, adding that custody was not the only disposal available in this case.

Passing sentence Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said only a “reckless idiot” would have driven like Batziris on that day and added that it was close to a miracle that the accident did not end in a fatality.

Batziris and will only be able to get his driving licence back after passing the extended test of competency.