A former footballer whose careless driving fatally injured a former soldier on a zebra crossing - before he calmly lit a cigarette and left the scene - went on to commit three separate subsequent speeding offences while on bail for the death charge, a shocked judge heard today.
Craig Smart, 44, one-time centre forward with Montose FC, was appearing for sentence at the High Court in Aberdeen after being found guilty earlier this month of causing the death of pedestrian Dave McArthur when he collided with him on the crossing in Cardenden, Fife, in his flooring company employers' white Ford Transit van.
The court heard that after the incident, in November 2019, Smart had picked up two fixed penalty tickets within a few days in July 2021 while speeding to a job, and another speeding ticket in January 2022.
Judge Lord Scott said the post-fatality speeding offences were "very striking". He told Smart: "I've had cases in the past where someone has been unable to drive because of the trauma that they suffered from having caused someone else's death.
"To not only drive but to drive at excessive speed is something that I find difficult to understand."
He said there was "not really a remorseful attitude apparent at all" from Smart, according to a background report prepared by a social worker for the sentencing.
However because the report did not fully cover the possibility of a non-custodial disposal, he was required to obtain a supplementary report.
He further deferred sentence to the High Court in Stirling on April 24th and told Smart: "You should come back prepared for custody.
"But you have a statutory protection and I can't send you to custody unless it's the only appropriate disposal, the only way to be satisfied about that is to have a report that canvasses that in more detail."
Lord Scott apologised to several members of Mr McArthur's family on the public benches, who had travelled from Fife to Aberdeen expecting to see Smart sentenced.
He told them: "I'm sorry we're not able to deal with this today. The report from the social worker is not sufficient and not satisfactory. There are things I expect to have been given information about and I've not. It's more than unfortunate that you've had to travel up here and it's still not over."
Mr McArthur, a 43-year-old father-of-two, who worked with people with addictions, was using the zebra to go to a nearby Tesco Express when he was hit.
He was thrown 9.62 metres, suffering such a severe head injury that he died in hospital two days later. An eye witness described Smart's van doing "excessive speed", though police estimated 20 to 27 mph, and then "a loud bang".
Smart got out and phoned his girlfriend saying, "I've hit someone". She replied, "Don't run", but after just eight-and-a-half minutes, without waiting for the emergency services, he "took off", abandoning the van nearly four miles away in Kirkcaldy.
Father-of-three Smart, a floor layer, had originally faced a charge causing death by dangerous driving but the jury opted to convict of the less serious offence of causing death by careless driving.
Smart was also found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by leaving the scene and turning off his phone in a bid to prevent arrest and assessment of his capability to drive.
Lord Scott said this gave "an additional layer of gravity" to the incident. He said: "At least two people said to him don't go -- someone at the scene and his own partner on the phone."
He said the social background report suggested Smart was "very much focused on the impact of the events upon himself".
Smart's counsel, Ronnie Renucci KC said: "It would appear on one view that there's been an element of personal dislike by the writer of the report in relation to Mr Smart."
During the trial, a former care worker Agnes Smith, 63, who stopped and came face-to-face with Smart at the scene described him as "too calm".
She told the jury: "His eyes were big. It was as if he was on something, but I didn't smell drink. He lit up a cigarette, then he was away."
Smart's interim driving ban was continued.
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