Sentencing – Road traffic offences – Sentence discounting. . High Court of Justiciary: In an appeal in which the Sheriff Appeal Court referred an important question of principle to the High Court concerning sentence discounting in road traffic cases, the court held, inter alia, that s 196 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 applied to both a fine and other parts of a sentence such as penalty points or disqualification from driving; all were penalties and, in a given case, should be discounted for an early plea of guilty at approximately the same rate: other than in exceptional cases, such as where statutory minimums applied or a discount was otherwise impracticable the rate of discount should be uniform across all parts of the sentence.