Avionic Toad:-
...it was his CO who deemed he was a criminal of bad character.
I'm sure that you have an informed (professional even?) take on this, but did the CO really deem that?
I'm not backing the CO, I don't know him and there are no doubt as many poor CO's as ever there were. The charge was for an offence against Military Law, but was it a criminal offence under military law?
If some administrative process has linked summary military offences with civilian criminal ones, is that not where the "deeming" has happened, and from where the unintended consequences originate?
I'm sure that there are many technical howlers in my proposition, but can you see where I'm coming from? It's one thing to link Court Martial convictions with Civilian ones, but quite another for Summary convictions, no matter the plea, with those of a Civilian Court.
I still maintain that this "harmonisation" of Military life with the Civilian one is a fundamental error and is slowly underminding Service discipline.