foxmoth
Maybe - but would he (Flying Lawyer) have wanted to?
I would have been very happy to represent him (in my former life).
Someone who has flouted the rules so blatantly deserve the full force of the law.
I have no reason to suppose he did blatantly flout the rules. Whether he did or not, he certainly felt the full force of the law. He was fined a total of £5000, despite immediately admitting the offences, fully cooperating with the CAA investigation and pleading guilty. I don’t think anyone could sensibly regard the penalties as lenient. (He was probably ordered to pay costs in addition to the fines.)
In relation to the professional proceedings, I see considerable force in QDM’s point. I admire the doctor's courage in declining to accept the warning offered, even though that meant he would have to go through a hearing. The Investigation Committee, entirely properly IMHO, concluded that a warning was neither appropriate nor proportionate. Common sense ultimately prevailed.
GtE
the physician in question (no doctoral degree that I could see )
He is a doctor in the sense that the title is (correctly) used by the overwhelming majority of the UK population.
(I realise that some people with academic doctorates like to be called 'Doctor' - instead of using the relevant post nominal letters - even when outside academic institutions.
Without doubt CAA does intend those fines to be a deterrent.
The CAA doesn't decide the amount of the fine(s).
In my experience, fines in aviation cases vary greatly, not least because most courts have little or no experience of dealing with aviation matters.
Roffa
I find it mildly amusing that the administrative error, the lack of current medical/licence, is considered more serious by the GMC Committee than the actual act of low flying and busting airspace.
The magistrates court took the same view. The highest fine was for the lapsed medical/licence.
Perhaps the prosecutor suggested that was the most serious when giving the facts to the court?
That said, low flying and infringing airspace both vary considerably from minor to very serious depending upon the particular facts of the case.
FL