Celebrate getting to mid-week with another collection of true crime tales from across Tayside and Fife.
Swift sale
A Fife motorcyclist who crashed his bike while drunk found that his brother had sold it before he could get back on.
Richard Nisbet admitted to being over the limit (119/50ml blood) when he crashed his unregistered bike into a car on September 4 in 2020.
Nisbet, of Hazel Avenue in Kirkcaldy, admitted he had no license or insurance when he ploughed the bike into a car on the town’s King Street.
The 33-year-old’s solicitor David Cranston explained that he had left his parents’ house on the off-road machine in a hurry following a drunken argument.
Nisbet fell from the bike on collision and was taken to Victoria Hospital where his blood was tested for alcohol.
By the time police had arrived, the bike – valued at £2,500 – had been taken.
Mr Cranston explained the bike had made its way back to Nisbet’s brother who had sold it – despite being “significantly damaged” – for £1,000 by the time the rider found out.
Sheriff Alison McKay said: “You clearly put yourself and others at risk.”
She fined Nisbet £640 and banned him from the road for 24 months.
Cannabis drive
A drug driver who was caught speeding along a rural Perthshire road at 87mph was told it was lucky no one was hurt.
Morgan Farrington was pulled over on the A923 near Kettins, east of Coupar Angus, just before 1pm on April 11, last year.
Officers notice a distinctive smell and found a £32 lump of cannabis on his passenger seat.
The 23-year-old bar worker was tested at the roadside and found to be driving with 4.7 mics of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, a component of cannabis, per litre of blood. The legal limit is 2 mics.
Farrington, of Balmoral Road, Rattray, admitted speeding through a 60mph limit, possession of cannabis and driving with drugs in his system.
Sheriff Francis Gill told him: “Speeding and driving while under the influence of drugs are very serious offences.
“The consequences could have been catastrophic and it is perhaps only good fortune that no one was hurt.”
Farrington was fined £200 and banned from driving for a year.
Garage break-in
A Stirling man broke into a Perthshire garage and made off with tobacco and pharmaceuticals.
Hussein Jalil made his way into the Viewfield Garage at Muthill on April 13, last year.
His haul included several lighters and a bottle of water.
Jalil, of Gillespie Terrace, was due to be sentenced at Perth Sheriff Court on Wednesday, having admitted the break-in at an earlier hearing.
The court heard that he didn’t have bus fare to get to court, because he was forced to spend extra cash on heating.
Sheriff Francis Gill was told that a social work report on Jalil was not ready.
Sentence was deferred until March 9.
Hoaxer triggered manhunt
An ‘attention seeker’ amused himself with a hoax 999 call that sparked a major police manhunt in Perth city centre.
Kyle Wilkie phoned the emergency services hotline and told operators he was armed with a knife and had a black belt.
“Police and others will be attacked,” he warned.
Several police units were dispatched to search for the 24-year-old, including officers carrying tasers.
He was later found walking the streets without any weapon.
Teacher’s sexual misconduct
A suspended Fife schoolteacher has admitted sexual misconduct with two 17-year-old students.
Lewis Knott kissed and hugged one of his pupils, and had sexual chat during a drink-fuelled video call with another girl.
The 24-year-old was suspended in November 2020 following an internal investigation by Fife Council.
Now Knott has been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
