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Criminal evidence – Admissibility of evidence – Powers of search. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing appeals by two appellants who were indicted on a charge of being concerned in the supply of cannabis, and whose preliminary pleas objecting to the admission of evidence as to the finding of bars of cannabis resin in their car were repelled by the sheriff, the court held that the sheriff correctly found the search to have been unlawful because the police officers considered that they were acting under a power conferred by s 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, when that section conferred no such power, and that the sheriff was entitled to conclude that that illegality or irregularity could be excused.
Criminal evidence – Admissibility of evidence – Powers of search. High Court of Justiciary: Refusing appeals by two appellants who were indicted on a charge of being concerned in the supply of cannabis, and whose preliminary pleas objecting to the admission of evidence as to the finding of bars of cannabis resin in their car were repelled by the sheriff, the court held that the sheriff correctly found the search to have been unlawful because the police officers considered that they were acting under a power conferred by s 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, when that section conferred no such power, and that the sheriff was entitled to conclude that that illegality or irregularity could be excused.
Chair of the Bar reports back
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs
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