Mitchell Skilling

A Polish road haulier company that had 289 cases of cigarettes stolen from a lorry while transporting them by lorry from Poland to England has lost a UK Supreme Court appeal against a decision that they were liable for excise duty of nearly £450,000 levied on them by HMRC following the loss. M

An appeal against a Lands Tribunal decision imposing an agreement allowing the installation of a mobile phone mast on top of the Marks and Spencer store on Princes Street, Edinburgh, has been refused by the Inner House of Court of Session. Marks and Spencer plc argued that it would be unjust to allo

A man convicted in the High Court in Glasgow of two rapes, one of which was committed while he was on bail relating to the first offence, has lost a challenge to a cumulo sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. Dorel Simion argued that the cumulo sentence was excessive despite the serious nature o

The Court of Session has granted a vexatious litigant order against a man who had continually alleged his former solicitors of fraud since 2017 following an application by the Lord Advocate. Forbes Bruce Sime, a private hire driver, had instigated multiple actions against McCash & Hunter LLP sin

A Lord Ordinary has ruled that a policy of the City of Edinburgh Council creating restrictions on the granting of short-term lets in tenement buildings is unlawful at common law after a petition for judicial review was brought by a number of providers of short-term accommodation in the city. Petitio

An appeal by a convicted rapist who raped his partner while she was asleep has been refused by the High Court of Justiciary – despite a Crown concession that the appeal had merit. Appellant LW argued that the trial judge had erred in directing the jury that he could not have had a reasonable b

A judge in the Court of Session has refused to order the return of two young teenagers to the Netherlands to stay with their father after he made a Hague Convention application under the Child Abduction and Custody Act for their return, on the basis that it was not safe for them to return and they h

The High Court of Justiciary has ruled that the Crown unequivocally renounced its right to prosecute an individual for six alleged assaults after an appeal was brought against a sheriff’s decision to accept a plea in bar of trial based on an email sent by Crown Office staff to the would-be acc

A commercial judge in the High Court of England and Wales has resolved a preliminary issue in a pizza chain’s £260 million claim seeking payment from business interruption insurance following Covid closures in favour of its insurers. The PizzaExpress group, insured by Liberty Mutual Insu

The Inner House of the Court of Session has ruled that no protected legal privilege issue arises from comparing an earlier version of a document with a later one, thus allowing a reader to infer the nature of any legal advice given between versions. The issue arose in an appeal raised by the Univers

A care home that was fined £100,000 after being found criminally responsible for the death of a resident from hypothermia after she became locked out of the building has lost an appeal against its sentence. St David’s Care Forfar Ltd pled guilty to a contravention of sections 3(1) and 33

The High Court of Justiciary has allowed the consideration of a late application to raise matters excluded by the “rape shield” provisions of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 after finding it was in the interest of justice to allow it. Appellant Edward Doran was indicted to a p

An Edinburgh sheriff has determined that an adult did not have the capacity to revoke a power of attorney granted in 2014 in favour of a new one in 2021 after an application was made by the Public Guardian challenging the second grant. Fiona Brown, the Public Guardian, applied under the Adults with

The High Court of Justiciary has refused an appeal against a sheriff’s decision that a person accused of possessing indecent photographs of children did not require access to legal advice before responding to a police request to supply a password for an electronic device during a premises sear

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has ruled that a position taken by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that it is never possible to make advance payments of Universal Credit to claimants who do not possess a National Insurance number at the time of their initial application is flaw