Mr. Darrell Issac was on trial charged with one count of “driving without due care and attention”, relating to an incident outside of Deanos bar on Friday 18th June. Crown Prosecution, Mr Stuart Walker, explained that at around 9pm, two Police officers say they saw the defendant “revving”, “bouncing his car up and down” and “failing to indicate” whilst pulling out of a parking space.
PC Andrew McKeown explained to the court how he saw the defendant’s vehicle “revving loudly” and “moving back and forward” at least 5 or 6 times, whilst PC Shane Browning said he saw the defendant pulling out “quite rapidly” from where he was parked using “no lights or indication”.
In defence, Mr. Phillip Axon, argued that due to the nature of the car being parked on a hill, higher revs were required to start the car and accused both police officers of producing an exaggerated account of events.
PC McKeown said he found the accusation of colluding and fabricating evidence with his colleague “offensive”, “astonishing” and “outrageous”, and that he had followed common practice “taught at police school”.
Mr. Issac and the sole passenger in the car at the time also appeared as witnesses in the trial.
After deliberating for 40 minutes, the Justices of the Peace delivered a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict, explaining they believed the prosecution’s entire case rested on a picture of revving the car loudly, and there was not sufficient proof that the driving fell below expected standards.
However, the bench was clear to point out that they did not believe that the two police officers had “fabricated or contaminated evidence”.
Separate from the defendant’s trial, Mr. Issac received a £250 fine, £150 court costs and had his licence endorsed for ‘failing to display lights’ in the same incident on the 18th June, but was not fined for ‘driving without a seatbelt’ on the 2nd September.