Robbie the Pict, who faces 11 charges of failing to pay for crossing the Skye Bridge, failed yesterday in his latest challenge to the bridge tolls, writes Bruce McKain.
Robbie, 50, argued that the toll period had not been validly started according to the procedure laid down by statute, and that the toll order had not set out a maximum payment, also as required by law.
His arguments were rejected by the sheriff at Dingwall and he took his case to the Justiciary Appeal Court where he appeared on his own behalf.
During a two-and-a-half hour hearing, Robbie told Lord Sutherland, sitting with Lords Caplan and Wylie, that this was a very grave issue, affecting 475 people who had been subjected to charges involving 2800 criminal offences and he went on to describe the tolls as a ''muggers' charter''.
The Crown argued that all three notices required for a valid toll order had been published in the prescribed manner and that a maximum toll order had been specified.
In a written decision issued yesterday Lord Sutherland said the court's view was that the toll period had been properly started on October 16 1995 in accordance with the legal requirements and that a toll order prescribing maximum tolls had been issued by providing a formula by which the maximum payment could be worked out.
The court sent the case back to be dealt with by the sheriff at Dingwall.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article