Castle Huntly absconder Thomas McGarva said he fled because he was afraid of being harmed over a drug debt.
McGarva, serving 32 months for assault and robbery, did not return to the open prison at Longforgan after being given a temporary release licence to visit his mother. A condition of the licence was that he hand himself in at Stirling Bus Station after a week. A police hunt was launched after he failed to appear.
McGarva (33) was spotted a week later, on Wednesday, by police in Glasgow’s Argyll Street and arrested, appearing at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday.
His solicitor David Holmes said: ”He has a long-standing debt accumulated because of the misuse of cocaine and learned that the persons who were seeking payment of that debt were aware he was at Castle Huntly. He was fearful that trouble would be visited upon him and his mother and he decided that he would be best to stay with friends and try and see as many people as he could to borrow money to repay that debt.”
Sheriff Robert McCreadie added eight months to McGarva’s sentence.
He said: ”As with the commission of any crime, there’s only one course of action and that’s to inform the relevant authorities. Your actions have brought you nothing but a further period in prison.”