A Kinross-shire man dragged his former partner from her car on a petrol station forecourt in a bid to grab her mobile phone.
Steven Hepburn had broken up with the woman but she later agreed to meet him at the petrol station in Rosyth.
Hepburn lost his temper and demanded her phone, accusing her of cheating on him.
Fiscal depute Lee-Anne Hannan told Dunfermline Sheriff Court the pair had been in a six-month relationship which had ended but Hepburn was “not accepting of this decision”.
She said the woman agreed to meet Hepburn at the Shell fuelling station in Rosyth, early on January 30.
They parked so the drivers’ windows were side-by-side but the conversation deteriorated and Hepburn reversed his car so it was in front of the other.
Accused smashed car window with hands
Ms Hannan said: “He demanded her phone as he felt she had been unfaithful to him.
“She refused to give it to him and put her window up.
“He then put his hands on the window and pulled in order to open it. This caused it to smash.
“He then opened the door and pulled (the woman) causing her to fall to the ground.”
“He began to look in her car for the phone.
“(The woman) was trying to get up and was prevented from doing so. She started to scream to get attention.”
A motorist using the fuel pumps came to her aid while a member of staff called the police.
Hepburn then left the petrol station and his former partner said she did not want police involved.
However, officers spoke to Hepburn about the incident and also a series of messages and phone calls he had made to the woman.
‘Blown out of proportion’
Hepburn’s solicitor said he accepted that he had broken the vehicle’s window in an attempt to get the phone.
He said: “The complainer has spoken to me and it’s her view that things have been blown out of proportion.
“It’s no excuse for his behaviour but it has to be heard in context.
“She has also confirmed that he paid for the window that was broken.”
Hepburn had earlier pled guilty to engaging in a course of conduct which caused his victim fear or alarm over an eight-day period in 2020.
The 43-year-old admitted that he repeatedly sent her messages and phoned her.
Hepburn, of Main Street in Crook of Devon, behaved in this manner at Peacehill Fauld in Rosyth, Central Road in Crombie, a cottage in Culross, and the Shell garage on Admiralty Road in Rosyth, in the knowledge that his actions were unwanted.
He was ordered to carry out 90 hours of unpaid work.
