Marcus Wishart was convicted of failing to stop and report an accident under the Road Traffic Accident in Kirkaldy Justice of the Peace Court. It was claimed that he had hit another vehicle in a leisure centre car park while trying to park his own vehicle. Mr Wishart did not stop his car and subsequently did not try to contact the owner of the vehicle or report the accident to the police. At trial, the Crown lead evidence from three witnesses as well as CCTV evidence.

A no case to answer submission was made by the defence, who claimed the certificate of provenance provided with the CCTV evidence was “deficient”. This was due to the fact that it did not include sufficient information, such as the nature of the responsibility of the duty manager who filled the certificate in.

The Justice of the Peace presiding over the case rejected the submission and convicted Mr Wishart.
Mr Wishart appealed the conviction on the basis that the Justice erred by not considering the no case to answer submission. It was argued in opposition by the Procurator Fiscal that no objection to the CCTV evidence was raised during the trial and that the credibility of the CCTV evidence was addressed by Crown witnesses.
Delivering the opinion of the Appeal Court, Sheriff MacFadyen agreed with submission made by the Crown, holding that “in order to prevent the CCTV footage being viewed and considered by the
Court, an objection should have been taken when the Crown attempted to show it”.
Addressing the CCTV certificate itself, the Appeal Court agreed that it was “carelessly filled in”, but determined that all information required by law had been included and met the requirements unders283 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.
The Appeal Court concluded that even if the certificate of provenance was rejected by the Justice of the Peace, “there was sufficient evidence thereof from the combination of the evidence of the witness”. Accordingly, the appeal was rejected.