Taxi Driver Online

Unfitness to drive

A driver who was a diabetic and who injected himself daily with insulin suffered a hypoglycaemic attack and crashed his vehicle. He was charged with driving when unfit through drugs (s.4(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988). The Divisional Court quashed his conviction, not having been satisfied that there was sufficient expert evidence before the magistrate to entitle him to be sure beyond reasonable doubt that the attack had been induced by the insulin injection which the driver had taken some hours earlier, or that any failure on the part of the driver had caused the attack and there being evidence before the court that (by reason of the difficulty in maintaining the appropriate blood-sugar balance) even a careful diabetic was liable to such attacks (R v Ealing Magistrates' Court, ex p. Woodman [1994] RTR 189).

Vehicle excise duty

Before the offence of fraudulently using a vehicle excise licence can be established (eg use of an altered licence disc), the prosecution must show that the vehicle was being or had been used on a public road with such licence (R v Johnson [1994] The Times, 24 February). The statutory provision (s.26(1)(c) of the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971) should be strictly construed, and the offence is not made out merely by showing that the person who might use the vehicle had an intention to use it on a public road at some time in the future (Cook v Lanyon [1972] RTR 496 considered).

On a charge of forging a tax disc, it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove an intention to deceive on the part of the defendant and the definition of 'forgery' in the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 is applicable (R v Macrae [1994] Crim LR 363).

The Vehicles Excise and Registration Act 1994 repealed and replaced the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1994 on 1 September 1994. The new Act is a consolidation measure, but it largely incorporates the 'temporary' provisions contained in sched 7 to the 1971 Act which in effect amended a number of the provisions of that Act throughout its existence.
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