JP removed from office after speeding conviction says he was unfairly treated

Published on Thursday 8 July 2010 18:38

A JUSTICE of the peace removed from office after he was convicted of speeding yesterday said he felt he had been unfairly treated.

Henry Dedecker, 56, who was a JP in Inverness, was convicted of speeding in 2008, fined 200 and given four points on his licence after a trial.

During the case he did not turn up for a court appearance and was convicted, following another trial, of failing to attend court and again fined 200. A tribunal later ruled that he was unfit to hold the office of JP.

Mr Dedecker said that he made ten court appearances, and that he had notified the court in advance that he would be in Paris on the date he did not appear. And he claims he was accused of speeding in a different location to where he saw officers using a speed gun.

He questioned the decision to remove him from the office of JP. "Is it fair? Not really because the whole thing was not fair from the outset. I like to think that my nine years of free, fair and independent service on the bench has been of some value to society and therefore find these matters and their outcome doubly disappointing."

He added: "It appears that the fundamental conviction is unsafe in the first place and I am therefore considering a late appeal."

Regarding an error in the reporting of his case which referred to him as a JP from Dingwall instead of Inverness, Mr Dedecker said: "It was the judicial communications office who released the wrong information and this seems to have been deliberately ignored by the Crown Office when they were contacted by the some of the media."

l The Scotsman incorrectly referred to Mr Dedecker as a "drink-drive JP" in our headline of 7 July. We apologise for the error.