A POLICE forensic scientist has been suspended from duty after a court heard he terrified a woman driver on a motorway.
Civilian officer Allan Jamieson, who is Lothian and Borders Police senior scientist, is to be called before a police disciplinary hearing after he was fined in court for stopping a woman on a motorway to lecture her about her driving.
Yesterday, police bosses said they were concerned by Mr Jamieson's actions described in the case and intended to study the factual evidence closely.
They said that, until a full disciplinary hearing into his behaviour had been carried out, Jamieson had been suspended on full pay.
A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: ``We are considering the outcome of the court proceedings.
``In the meantime, Mr Jamieson has been placed on a precautionary suspension.''
Jamieson was fined #300 yesterday when he appeared at Airdrie Sheriff Court. He admitted putting a woman driver in a state of alarm.
Jamieson, 40, was alleged to have flashed a ``police'' sign at his victim as he tailed her along the M8.
The woman he pulled over to lecture about her driving was in fact a British School of Motoring instructor and her husband was a Glasgow police officer.
The case unfolded when depute fiscal Olive Walker told the court Mrs Michelle Doyle noticed a large Mercedes following her.
Just before the Shotts turn-off, Mrs Doyle pulled into the inside lane and Jamieson pulled level with her and held his position.
Said Miss Walker: ``He began gesticulating at her for a few seconds.
``She pulled out to overtake a heavy goods vehicle and he followed, coming up immediately behind her.
``She then looked in her rear mirror and formed the opinion that on his front windscreen appeared a Police sign. Again the driver was gesticulating at her to pull over.
``By this time, she decided he must be a police officer and pulled on to the hard shoulder.
``The accused pulled up behind, got out of his car, and rested a hand on her car roof and he told her she had not been concentrating on her driving.
``Mrs Doyle protested that she had not been drivingly badly. She then followed the accused's eyes and saw him look at the passenger seat and saw that he noticed a mobile phone. Then the accused went away.''
Back home, Mrs Doyle discussed the incident with her husband.
An investigatigation began and suspicion fell on Jamieson, who admitted to police he had been the driver of the Mercedes.
During a taped police interview, Jamieson said he thought the woman driver was tending a baby in the front passenger seat.
Defence lawyer, Mr Bob Livingstone, said his client denied that at any time had he pretended to be a policeman.
Mr Livingstone said because Jamieson - a doctor of criminology - attends scenes of accidents in his professional capacity, he has a ``Police'' sign attached to the underside of his sun visor. The lawyer said the visor was not down.
Mr Livingstone said: ``He had noticed the woman driver moving from the inside to the outside and back again and often looking at the nearside passenger seat where he thought there was a baby.
``He had gesticulated to her by pointing to his eyes then to her eyes indicating she had not been paying attention.
``He had followed her but had not intended her to pull over. When she did, he got out and spoke to her about her driving. He then noticed a pile of cassettes on the passenger seat and thought that her attention had been taken up examining the cassettes.
``It was a situation which escalated from a silly incident and has become a major embarrassment to Mr Jamieson.''
Sentencing Jamieson, of Gleneagles Avenue, Cumbernauld, Sheriff Iain Simpson, said: ``What this amounts to fundamentally is bullying a lady on the road.
``If we all stopped people on the motorway whose driving we didn't like, then straddled along the hard shoulder would be a queue of people arguing with each other.''
Jamieson, who heads the forensic unit at Howden Hall, Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to breach of the peace. The court accepted his not guilty plea to a similar charge involving another woman.
Lothians and Borders Police had an observer in court, said a spokeswoman for the force.
She added: ``We will study the outcome of the proceedings and consider any disciplinary issues which may arise.''
Last night, Mrs Doyle, 34, said: ``I went through hell because of this. The whole experience was shattering. I had to see a psychiatrist and was later put on medication by my GP.''
Mrs Doyle added: ``He is a professional man. He has a good job and is the kind of person other people look up to. It might seem unbelievable that he could do something so stupid.''
``At the time, it was terrifying. I had no idea what was going on.''
Mrs Doyle's husband John, also 34, a police officer in Glasgow, said: ``Michelle has been under a lot of pressure because of all this. I am just glad for her that it is all over.''
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