A solicitor who ignored a Highland Sheriff’s order to appear before her faces being held in contempt of court.
Aberdeen-based Michael Allan had failed to make the journey to represent his client at Inverness Sheriff Court twice already, and was ordained to appear yesterday.
But to the obvious annoyance of Sheriff Margaret Neilson, a partner in his firm was sent instead.
Sheriff Neilson told his stand-in, Keidra Morison, that her boss must appear in person on Friday, when she will “consider” the contempt of court issue.
In extreme cases, contempt of court can lead to a fine or prison sentence.
His substitute apologised to the Sheriff and said: “I am a partner in the firm and I hope the court will accept my apologies. There is an urgent matter calling at Peterhead today and Mr Allan had to appear to deal with a High Court bail application.”
After finding out that Mr Allan knew about the urgent case on Friday, the Sheriff said: “Then why did he not contact the court on Friday to inform us of this? I was told he was free and available for today. This has been dragging on for a long time, causing considerable inconvenience to the court and his client.
“I am prepared to hear your plea for your client because it is not his fault his representation is lacking, to say the least. I am not sure why he sent you when he was ordained to appear.
“I will further order him to appear on Friday, September 30, when I will consider the question of contempt of court.”
Yesterday was the third time that Mr Allan had been absent when Murdoch Fraser, 45, from Bucksburn, was facing sentence over a disturbance and police assault.
The first time, several weeks ago, Mr Allan contacted the court to say he had been involved in a road accident and would not be there. On the second occasion in August, a local solicitor acted for Mr Fraser.
However, Fraser said he would prefer Mr Allan deal with his case, and Sheriff Neilson ordained the solicitor to appear personally yesterday.
Mr Fraser was sentenced to 240 hours of unpaid community work.
Last year, Mr Allan was the target of a scathing attack by Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken and was found by the Scottish Solicitors Discipline Tribunal to have brought the profession into disrepute following its own investigation. It fined him £1,000 and ordered him to pay the expenses.
