Court /

Jail ‘inevitable’ if banned Burra man gets behind wheel again

23 September 2026 15:51

A BANNED driver who crashed his car for a second time in four months has been warned prison is “inevitable” if he gets behind the wheel again.

Vitalijs Melnikovs, from Burra, had previously admitted crashing into a ditch on the B9074 road at Trondra on 30 April after suffering a suspected epileptic seizure.

Melnikovs, 51, was banned from driving on 2 November 2023 because of his epilepsy.

Despite that, he drove through the Co-op roundabout and into a fence in Lerwick on 31 January when he suffered a seizure at the wheel.

Melnikovs was eventually fined £1,200 and banned from the road for 16 months for that offence – but while awaiting sentence he got behind the wheel on 30 April and again crashed.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said Melnikovs was picking the car up from the garage in Scalloway and driving it back to Burra at the time, with the usual driver unavailable to collet it.

Melnikovs “would not expect to have another seizure so quickly” after his January episode, so decided to try drive it back to his house, around three miles away.

However he did suffer another seizure, and drove off the road down a steep embankment, where it came to rest in a ditch, at around 4.30pm.

Allan said Melnikovs had been a first-time offender at the time of his January crash, and said he had no intention of driving again.

The stress of the court case was making Melnikovs ill, Allan said, and he had suffered more seizures recently.

He understood that he could be jailed, and said that could possibly see him deported from the country.

“He appreciates and is thankful that no-one was hurt,” Allan said. “He realises now how lucky he was.”

Sheriff Harry Small said he was “not impressed” by Melnikovs’ belief that he would not experience a seizure again so soon.

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“He shouldn’t have been driving at all,” the sheriff added.

He said this was an “almost identical” offence to the January crash, and said he was well within his rights to consider a prison sentence.

However the sheriff decided that a “robust” community sentence was instead more appropriate.

Melnikovs was warned though that if he gets behind the wheel again a custodial sentence is “inevitable”.

He was banned from driving for three years, and ordered to sit the extended test of competence before regaining his licence.

Melnikovs was also placed under supervision for 18 months, while a restriction of liberty order was also made against him.

He will not be able to leave his home between the hours of 7pm-5am for the next six months.

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