A court has heard how an Angus care home handyman caused £3,000 worth of damage to a staff car in a “bizarre” reaction to a staff meeting announcing a new manager at the premises.
Blair Thomson ranted in earshot of elderly residents at Storyville in Kirriemuir and stormed out of the home, only to return and smash the windows and bodywork of a car with a two-foot metal pole in front of shocked colleagues.
Forfar sheriff court heard 30-year-old Thomson has already paid a high price after being sacked from his post, and has been warned by a sheriff it could put him at risk of custody depending on the outcome of a background report into the incident.
Thomson, of Westfield, Kirriemuir pled guilty to behaving in a threatening manner at the care home on June 4 and wilfully or recklessly damaging a car there.
Depute fiscal Jill Drummond said the accused had worked there for around a year and although he and the manager had not previously seen eye to eye, that had not led to any prior problems.
At around 3pm on the date of the offence, the accused and staff were taken into the main office and told a new manager was going to be appointed at the home.
That led Thomson to rant about an issue which had arisen with a previous manager that had forced them to leave their position at the home, but he was warned by colleagues to calm down and told he was “out of order”.
He stormed off, saying: “I’ll be back for my tools”, then appeared at a window and began shouting and swearing.
Around fifteen minutes later, Thomson came back to the office and colleagues intervened when he came face to face with the manager.
The accused then went out into the car park and witnesses looked outside and saw him standing with a two-foot metal pole which he was using to smash the windows of a grey Suzuki.
Thomson put the pole in his car and told police it was there when they arrived at his house soon after having been contacted by the care home.
Defence solicitor Brian Bell said: “He had a bee in his bonnet about a previous manager because of that person’s apparent behaviour, but in the cold light of day he accepts that it had nothing to do with him.
“He accepts he acted like a total idiot. It has already had far-reaching consequences for him and this type of behaviour is going to make it far more difficult for him to get a job in the future,” said Mr Bell.
Sheriff Murray told Thomson: “You have no real analogous convictions for this type of thing and your behaviour, to put it mildly, bizarre.
“On the face of it, this is a case in which I must consider a custodial sentence, and if I am not going to impose a custodial sentence I need to look at alternatives and a report will need to be prepared for that.”
