Fife crash officer avoids ban for careless driving – after taking up advanced lessons

A plain-clothes police officer has avoided a driving ban after a high-speed crash on a Scottish A-road after force bosses said they would send him for advanced driving lessons.

Detective Constable Stuart Scanlin ploughed his white R-series VW Golf into a tractor.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard Scanlin was driving at “excessive speed” before the collision and had crossed solid double white lines on to the opposing carriageway of the A92 road at Parbroath, near Cupar.

He overtook the blue tractor “at high speed” and while it was indicating and turning right into an access road.

He collided with the tractor and his car left the road, smashing into a fence.

The vehicle Scanlin was driving in the September 9 2018 accident was not a police car.

At Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday, Scanlin, whose address was given in court papers as care of Police Scotland’s Professional Standards Department, Fettes Avenue, Edinburgh, tendered a guilty plea, through his solicitor, to careless driving.

He had originally faced a charge of dangerous driving, for which he could have been banned, but prosecutor Gavin Burton accepted his plea to the lesser charge of carelessness.

Solicitor Gary Mcilravey, defending, said Scanlin was not personally present for the case, by agreement with the prosecution, “because of work commitments”.

He said: “This was a country road. He was approaching a corner in his car when the tractor pulled out of a field on to the main road.

“He anticipated it would straighten up and continue down the road and thus performed an overtaking manoeuvre.

“Unfortunately he didn’t anticipate the driver continuing diagonally across the carriageway to enter a field on the other side of the road.

“He tried to anticipate what was happening but unfortunately got it wrong.

“He appreciates that given the road markings he ought simply to have decelerated.”

Mr Mcilravey said Scanlin’s bosses had indicated the conviction “should not affect” his employment.

He said: “They will put him on an advanced driving course at the conclusion of these proceedings, so he will be able to drive for them in due course.”

Sheriff Craig Mcsherry fined Scanlin £400 and ordered his licence be endorsed with three penalty points.

It is understood Scanlin was not suspended or put on any restrictive duties as a result of the incident.