An employment judge has been reprimanded for misconduct after he was disqualified from driving for 15 months.
Simon Loy admitted failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis, for which he was also fined.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: ‘Judicial office-holders are expected to show "respect for the law and observance of the law". They should avoid situations which might reasonably reduce respect for judicial office or might cast doubt upon their independence, impartiality or integrity.’
Loy acknowledged he had driven after drinking alcohol and refused to give a breath sample. The JCIO said he expressed regret for his behaviour and apologised.
‘In outlining the background to the incident, EJ Loy described the difficult personal circumstances he had been experiencing at the time,’ the JCIO added.
An investigation found Loy had breached the guide to judicial conduct, ‘falling short of the core principle of integrity’. It noted Loy’s ‘prompt’ self-reporting, his full acceptance of responsibility, his personal mitigation, his engagement with appropriate services and his otherwise unblemished conduct record.
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Loy, admitted as a solicitor in 1996, was found to have ‘acted recklessly by driving after consuming alcohol and displayed a lack of respect and observance of the law when failing to provide a breath sample’. The investigation noted that though ‘no one was harmed, there was a real possibility that EJ Loy and others may have been harmed’.
Taking into consideration ‘the gravity’ of Loy’s behaviour and his ‘significant, compelling and exceptional personal mitigation’, the lady chief justice, with the lord chancellor’s agreement, issued Loy with a reprimand.
Sanctions for misconduct by judicial office-holders are, in order of severity: formal advice, formal warning, reprimand and removal from office.
