His father, a distinguished lawyer, had served as Solicitor General and Lord Advocate, before being appointed a judge and rising to the rank of Lord Justice Clerk, the second-most senior judge in Scotland.
He was appointed a Sheriff of Tayside, Central and Fife in 1979, serving at Dunfermline from 1979 to 1980, and at Perth from 1980 to 2000.
From 2002 to 2006, he was Chairman of the Judicial Studies Committee, the body responsible for the training of judges.
[3] In the 2021 mini-series A Very British Scandal, Wheatley was played by Jonathan Aris.
He stood as the Labour Party candidate in Dumfries in the February and October 1974 general elections.