SNP MP banned from driving over crash which left biker in hospital
MacNeil tries to blame VICTIM as sheriff condemns his evidence as ‘not credible’
NATIONALIST MP Angus MacNeil has been banned from the road after being found guilty of careless driving over a crash with a teenage motorcyclist.
MacNeil’s evidence during the trial was slammed by the sheriff who said he did not find it ‘credible’.
The 51-year-old blamed motorcyclist Cailean MacNeil (no relation) for the crash and disputed the evidence of the police officer on the scene who said the MP had admitted: ‘It’s my fault. I didn’t see the boy.’
He also argued that his licence was ‘essential’ to his work as an MP after he was convicted of careless driving over the crash which left the teenager with a broken right leg and permanent scarring.
But Sheriff Gordon Lamont disqualified him from driving for three months, fined him £1,500 and also criticised the credibility of the evidence he gave during the two-day trial at Lochmaddy Sheriff Court on North Uist.
The sheriff told him: ‘I do not accept as credible your version of events.
‘Nor do I accept as credible your account of your comments after the event to the police officer.’
The politician had arrived for the hearing driving a black Vauxhall Astra but left in the back of a car driven by one of his legal team.
He had been charged with dangerous driving on Barra in October 2020 but was convicted of an alternative charge of careless driving.
The court heard MacNeil – who is from Barra and became an MP in 2005 – had been swimming before getting into his 57-plate Ford Focus estate close to Castlebay Community School. He was attempting a three-point turn on the A888 when the then 17-yearold’s dirt bike collided with him. A 15-year-old friend of the victim who saw the collision told the court: ‘He was heading down and Angus MacNeil pulled out and he hit into the car. He was facing east, doing a U-turn to go the other way.
He didn’t see him or whatever and hit him.’
Caliean was found face down when an ambulance, which had been called by MacNeil, arrived at the scene.
He was taken to St Brendan’s Hospital on the island but was flown to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for surgery on his leg.
The teenager told the court he has been left ‘constantly taking paracetamol’ to cope with the pain and struggles to work as a mechanic.
Yesterday the court heard that MacNeil waited in his car until PC Phil Farndell, who had been off-duty but was called and asked to go to the scene of a ‘car versus motorbike’ collision, arrived.
The officer said: ‘I asked Mr MacNeil what had happened. He seemed quite upset.
‘He replied “It’s my fault. I didn’t see the boy”.
‘I told him not to say anything else as it could harm his defence later down the line.’
MacNeil was breathalysed, which was negative. He was later visited at home by officers to be charged with careless driving and replied: ‘No. I will speak to a lawyer.’
Giving evidence, MacNeil insisted that he had checked the road was clear before starting the three-point turn at around ‘four or five miles per hour’.
He said the first he knew of the motorbike was when he heard a ‘bang’ as it collided with the front passenger side of his car.
He said: ‘There was no traffic on the road when I made my manoeuvre.
‘He was lying on the road when I got out. He came from nowhere. I didn’t see him.
‘I have got to reluctantly say it was the motorcyclist’s fault. I’m very sorry for the injuries he sustained.’
Defence advocate John Brannigan argued his client should be punished with penalty points, saying: ‘Mr MacNeil’s licence is essential for his duties.’
‘It’s my fault. I didn’t see the boy’