Jockey unseated by car ban

A JOCKEY banned from driving for causing a motorway smash on his way to a race launched a legal bid to win his licence back after claiming a police officer told him he would escape disqualification.

Garry Whillans went to court after claiming he was unaware his guilty plea to a charge of dangerous driving would lead to the motoring ban.

The 23-year-old said an officer at the scene of the accident told him he could escape a penalty if he agreed to go on a course for young drivers involved in accidents.

Following a hearing at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, Lord Hardie said he had "difficulty accepting that assertion" and threw out his appeal.

Whillans was driving two friends to a race meeting in Perth at 4.40pm on July 28 last year when he caused the accident on the M9 Edinburgh to Stirling motorway at Kirkliston.

The young jockey drove across the centre lane to the slip road without properly indicating, and the vehicle went into the path of a Peugeot car driven by Kerry White, who was driving her partner and two children. His car crashed into the rear of Ms White's car while a lorry was also caught up in the collision.

Although no-one was injured, both Whillans' and Ms White's cars suffered extensive damage.

Lawyers for Whillans told the appeal judges that he attended Edinburgh Sheriff Court on December 4 last year without a solicitor to represent him.

Whillans said he briefly described the accident, but was left "shocked at the outcome of the case" when he was banned from driving for a year, as well as being handed a 660 fine and ordered to resit his driving test.

His lawyer told the appeal court that Whillans, who lives in Hawick in the Borders, had "no idea disqualification was inevitable, nor did he understand the gravity of the charge".

In his written ruling, Lord Hardie said that the charge Whillans faced was "indicative of seriously bad driving" and there could have been "no doubt in the mind" that he was pleading guilty to that offence.

Rory Bannerman, the solicitor who dealt with Whillans' appeal, said: "My client was disappointed at the outcome given that there seemed to be a lack of clear representation of his case previously. He pled guilty in error, but he respects the decision of the High Court."

A Crown Office spokeswoman said: "We note the decision of the court."

Whillans, who is the oldest son of well-known race trainer Donald Whillans and rides horses from his Borders stable, is a National Hunt jockey who had ten wins to his credit at the end of the 2009-10 season.