Chestnut in the fire

The Map of Tasmania ... Madge Marron birched again, this time by the CJ-in-waiting ... Traffic Act trauma ... New Supremos  

Alan Blow: from Sydney to HobartI was a bit upset that Madge Reg Marron wasn't among the cluster of new appointments to the Tas Supremes. 

The Skittle's office announced that Alan Blow, Sydney raised and bred, was to be the CJ, and that Stephen Estcourt QC and Madge Robert Pearce are to be new Supremos. 

Simon Cooper and Simon Brown become madges.

Cooper's appointment is well overdue - as head of the Resource Planning and Development Commission he was in the bad books of Premier (The Burst Sav) Lennon, who meddled and tried to short circuit the Gunns Pulp Mill approval process. 

The Tasmanian Times reminds us that the former attorney general Steve Kons was forced to resign after misleading parliament about shredded documents recommending Cooper's appointment as a magistrate five years ago. 

TT readers also former clients also make their unhappy comments about the new Supreme Court appointees. 

Madge Marron's record on traffic cases also may have disadvantaged him with the selectors, particularly as the CJ-in-waiting has just issued a punishing judgment booting one of the Chestnut's decision in a tricky driving licence drama. 

Blow described the decision to grant George Andrew Bushby a restricted driving licence as "extraordinary", adding that the Chestnut had been "extremely gullible". 

See reasons. 

Bushby's provisional licence was suspended for three months as a result of an accumulation of demerit points. 

He came before Marron pleading that since he's a real estate salesman he needs his car for seven days a week between 8am and 8pm. 

Estcourt: joins the Tas SupremesThe Chestnut granted him the restricted licence after some creative interpretation of the Vehicle and Traffic Act which requires that a disqualification can be set aside if the magistrate is satisfied it would impose "severe and unusual hardship".  

Bushby produced a letter from his boss saying that his employment would be "jeopardised" if he lost his licence. 

Marron granted an adjournment so the hapless real estate spruiker could go and get a better letter. 

This did the trick because he returned to court with a second missive that said the lad's employment would be "terminated" if he did not get a restricted licence. 

Bushby already had been twice disqualified from driving and there was a shortage of evidence that he faced severe or unusual hardship. Blow said: 

"I suppose I have to accept that the learned magistrate was approaching his duties conscientiously. It follows therefore that he was extremely gullible on this occasion in accepting the letter." 

Marron: conscientiousHe also gave the prosecutor a whack for allowing the letter to be tendered without hauling the real estate boss into the box for cross-examination. 

Last time the Chestnut featured in dispatches from The Map it was Crawford CJ giving him a birching for another traffic case, in which the magistrate erred no fewer than 12 times.  

On that occasion the Chestnut was being mean to a speeding driver and convicted her after conducting the case like an inquisition. 

Among the tiny errors identified by the CJ were that Madge Marron found the charge proved without any admissiblele evidence to support the finding; and telling the accused that the charge would be found proved unless she gave evidence. 

In 2010 The Examiner reported that someone suspected of being the Chestnut was caught driving 42 km/h over the limit. 

Such an experience can often cause a judicial officer to go either quite hard or unduly soft on people charged with similar offences. 

Last December The Mercury was carrying on because the Supreme Court upheld the sixth appeal against Reg in 12 months.  

Again, Crawford thought Reg's sentence in a driving drama was "manifestly inadequate". 

He's given Stacey Amanda Bessell a suspended jail term and 63 hours' community service for two counts of driving while disqualified. 

According to The Mercurial, Bessell, 32, has a criminal record of 242 offences including driving matters, offences of violence and dishonesty and her latest crimes breached the conditions of a three-month suspended jail sentence. 

The Supreme Court huffed about "unwarranted leniency". 

Frankly, these attacks on the Launceston Chestnut have gone too far.