A disgraced police officer, who has been warned he could be sent to jail, will have to wait to learn his fate after his case was delayed for a second time amid a legal dispute.
Graeme McEwan, whose address was given as the police station at Bucksburn, has admitted lying and falsifying evidence concerning a bus crash at Aberdeen Airport.
When he appeared at the city’s sheriff court to be sentenced last month, he was warned he could be sent to prison.
But Sheriff Gary Aitken decided to defer any decision until yesterday, so that background reports could be completed.
When McEwan returned to the dock, however, a disagreement over the circumstances of the offence meant that his sentencing was delayed again.
Fiscal depute Lynzi Souter had begun reading an account of the events of May 18, 2016, when defence agent Paul Barnett interjected.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan described the case as one “of some significance” and ordered that a mutually agreed description of the offence be decided.
Sheriff Buchanan deferred sentencing until May 7, for both sides to agree an account.
Court documents state that, between May 18 and September 28 2016, McEwan “neglected or violated” his duties to prevent and detect crime and to make reports to prosecutors as needed to bring offenders to justice.
Specifically he neglected to take a statement from the witness who reported the collision, and neglected to interview the driver suspected to have been responsible for it.
And in a standard police report submitted to the procurator fiscal on September 28 2016, McEwan said he had required the suspect to identify the driver at the time, and fabricated his reply before falsely stating he cautioned and charged him.