APPEAL COURT, HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY
Lord Carloway Lord Drummond Young	[2012] HCJAC 70 XJ229/12 OPINION OF THE COURT delivered by LORD CARLOWAY in APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE by ALICE WHITEFIELD Appellant; against PROCURATOR FISCAL, PORTREE Respondent: _____________

Appellant: Labaki; Drummond Miller (for Duncan McKinnon Burd, Portree)

Respondent: Pike, AD; Crown Agent

8 May 2012

[1] On 23 January 2012 at the Sheriff Court in Portree, the appellant, who is aged 47, pled guilty at a trial diet to a contravention of Section 7(6) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, that being failure to provide breath specimens on 1 January.

[2] The appellant had several analogous previous convictions for contraventions of Sections 5(1)(a) and (b) in 2001, 2004 and 2009 and also a contravention of Section 7 in 2003. This then was her fifth conviction relative to drink driving offences.

[3] On 20 February the sheriff sentenced the appellant to 4 months and 14 days imprisonment, discounted from 6 months for the early plea. He disqualified her from driving for 8 years. In addition to that, the sheriff forfeited her car which the court was informed was worth about £8,000, being a 2005 Land Rover Discovery which had been purchased from inherited money in October 2011. The appellant is unemployed and has a 6 year old daughter.

[4] The appeal was originally against the sentence of imprisonment as well as the forfeiture of the car. However, the appellant has served the period of imprisonment and the only issue for the appeal is the forfeiture of the vehicle.

[5] Having regard to all the circumstances, the court considers that forfeiture of an asset of that value when combined with a prison sentence for this offence is excessive in the case of an unemployed person with no significant means. It will accordingly quash the order for forfeiture.

Aud