A patient at a mental health hospital absconded on a supervised day release, travelled to Dunfermline and attempted to rob a bookmaker.
John O’Donnell, 31, now a patient at the State Hospital, Carstairs, pretended he had a weapon as he demanded a female worker empty the till and hand over the contents.
O’Donnell, who has extensive previous convictions, had been drinking alcohol and took a “legal high” before the robbery bid.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, O’Donnell was jailed for two years and has been returned to Carstairs to serve the sentence there. He admitted that on July 8 at Ladbrokes, Aberdour Road, Dunfermline, he attempted to rob a female member of staff by holding his hand in his pocket to imply he had a weapon and repeatedly demanded that she empty the till and give him the contents.
Depute fiscal Azrah Yousaf said O’Donnell had been a patient at the Orchard Centre in Edinburgh and was out with a staff member on a supervised day pass and, at around 3pm, he hailed a taxi and got in it. The staff member tried to get him back out but O’Donnell told the cabbie to drive off.
At around 5.50pm the Ladbrokes staff member was about to cash up when O’Donnell walked into the shop and went up to the counter. He instructed the worker to empty the till and then repeated this demand.
The woman tried to activate the panic button but was unable to locate it, added the depute fiscal. “He had his hand in his jacket pocket and lifted it up as if to indicate an object was in his pocket,” Ms Yousaf said.
O’Donnell was told by the woman she could not open the till. He told her he was “only joking” and left the premises.
Police were contacted and when they detained O’Donnell shortly afterwards he twice told them he had “just tried to rob the bookies”.
Defence solicitor Stephen Morrison said after absconding, his client had taken the taxi to a train station in Edinburgh and travelled to Dunfermline where he “consumed alcohol and took a legal high”.
Mr Morrison conceded his client “has, to say the least, an unenviable record” that includes 19 previous convictions for assault. He called for Sheriff Simon Collins to make a hospital direction that would allow his client to continue to receive treatment at the State Hospital.
Sheriff Collins imposed a two-year prison term with the hospital direction.