Police: Drink drivers arrested
A barrister who was suspended for four months in 2020 following an assault conviction, has been fined £5,500 by a Bar disciplinary tribunal for drink driving.
The tribunal said Stephen Joseph Sweeney had shown “clear remorse” and it did not consider that his misconduct was “likely to be repeated”.
Mr Sweeney, called in 2001, was suspended for four months in March 2020 by a disciplinary tribunal after being convicted two years earlier at Thames Magistrates’ Court of assaulting a woman by beating her in 2017.
He was also convicted of failing to surrender to custody on the day of his trial, having been released on bail.
He was sentenced to a community order comprised of up to 25 days of rehabilitation activity, and ordered to pay £250 in compensation and £500 in costs.
Mr Sweeney was also ordered not to contact the victim, apart from arranging contact with the children via email. He was fined £50 for the bail offence.
The latest Bar tribunal described the barrister’s previous disciplinary offences and sanction as “relevant and plainly very serious”.
However, the incident behind them “took place some six years ago” and “there did not appear to be any alcohol involved in the 2017 facts which led to the earlier charges”.
The tribunal said: “The drink-related incident before us in that sense appears to be a one-off event.”
Police were called “to an alleged incident of a car that had crashed into at least one parked car” in September 2021.
They found Mr Sweeney, called to the Bar in 2001, standing next to his vehicle. He admitted he had been drinking, failed a breath test and was arrested.
He pleaded guilty at Willesden Magistrates’ Court to driving while well over twice the limit. The barrister was fined £440 and banned from driving for 21 months.
Mr Sweeney admitted misconduct, both by diminishing trust and confidence in the profession and acting in a way which could reasonably be seen by members of the public as undermining a barrister’s integrity.
The tribunal said his behaviour was “not intentional” but “clearly reckless and constituted dangerous conduct”, even though he was “under a degree of personal and professional pressure at the time”.
Mr Sweeney did not attempt to hide his actions, admitting them to the police and later self-reporting them to the Bar Standards Board.
The incident “did not involve any physical injury to others, but clearly could have done” and the harm caused “could easily have been much worse”.
The tribunal said Mr Sweeney had shown “clear remorse” and “explained how he had ceased to drive after the conviction entirely”.
On this basis, the barrister’s misconduct was not “likely to be repeated”, and the tribunal noted his “current personal, financial and other circumstances and busy practice with clients dependent on him”.
While the issue of sanction was “finely balanced”, the tribunal was “just persuaded” that the mitigating factors meant that it should “adjust the indicative sanction down”.
Mr Sweeney was fined a total of £5,500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,560.
It is relatively unusual for drink-driving offences to be prosecuted before the tribunal rather than settled with a ‘determination by consent’ between the barrister and Bar Standards Board (BSB). The fact of a previous appearance before the tribunal may have been the reason here.
In recent weeks, two silks have reached such agreements with the BSB and accepted fines after convictions last year.
Rupert Bowers KC, called in 1995, attended a meeting at a pub in Kent to organise a charity fundraiser.
“During the meeting, Mr Bowers consumed 5-6 pints of beer and one small glass of red wine. Mr Bowers left the pub at approximately 20:15, intending to walk the half mile to his home.
“However, Mr Bowers then decided that he would drive home instead, having parked his car at the pub upon arrival. After travelling approximately 100m, Mr Bowers struck a row of parked vehicles.”
He was banned for 22 months – reduced to 22 weeks after he completed a course for drink-drive offenders – fined £1,270, and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £508.
Robert John Lawson KC, called in 1989, was convicted of drink driving and driving without due care and attention, for which he was banned for 18 months, fined £2,650 and ordered to pay costs of £105 and a victim surcharge of £190. He agreed with the BSB to pay a £1,000 fine.
He told the BSB that he had attended a drinks reception after work and “stayed longer than I should, and drank more than I should”, having discovered that a good friend and former pupil of his, who was suffering from terminal cancer, “had taken a considerable turn for the worse”.
He was stopped by the police on the way home from his local train station.
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