They would be shaky, sweating, and that would give them a good indication that this was going to happen

Delia Henry Diabetes UK

Last month, he was convicted of causing the death of a 51-year old woman by dangerous driving but the jury took the unusual step of adding the rider that he had been hypoglycaemic at the time.

Halliwell had lodged a special defence of automatism.

This stated that he was not consciously in control of his actions at the time of the crash on the A702 Edinburgh to Biggar road in December 2000.

He told the court that he had no recollection of the accident.

Emergency job

Halliwell, an engineer, was prescribed as a Type 1 diabetic in 1995, resulting in him needing regular insulin injections.

On the day of the crash, he was called out to a job in Edinburgh then set off for the journey home to West Linton.

He told the jury: "I remember getting into the car and driving along Dundas Street to Princes Street. That's all I can remember."

Delia Henry: "Rare case"

Delia Henry, from Diabetes UK Scotland, said: "People who have hypoglycaemia would normally have symptoms beforehand.

"They would be shaky, sweating, and that would give them a good indication that this was going to happen.

"If they took a quick shot of sugar, a piece of chocolate, a drink of Lucozade, that would stop the process. Anyone with diabetes taking insulin would know that."

The court heard that Halliwell's control of his diabetes was excellent. Only one in 20 people with the condition exercised the same level of monitoring.

Licence call

Diabetes UK suggests that anyone with Type 1 diabetes should check his or her blood sugar level each time before getting behind the wheel.

"I think it's very important that people do that," Mrs Henry said.

"There are tens of thousands of people in the UK who have diabetes, who are on insulin, who drive every day and who don't have the problem that Mr Halliwell had."

Mark Halliwell: "No memory"

The Scottish Campaign against Irresponsible Driving has called for new rules to force GPs to inform the DVLA when a person is diagnosed with diabetes.

But Mrs Henry said this was unnecessary.

"People with diabetes who are applying for a driving licence have to fill in a medical questionnaire and that's vetted by the DVLA and then individually assessed.

"As an organisation, that's what we would advocate."

"I think it's important to get it in context. Mr Halliwell's case is so rare that it doesn't even show in the statistics.

"Everyone should be treated as an individual case and that's extremely important," she added.