The Tuesday court round-up.
Spitting teenager
A spitting Buckhaven teenager has admitted abusing police after he was arrested for kicking the wing mirror off a parked car in Dunfermline.
Kai Hills appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to admit smashing the mirror and its plastic casing when he kicked the car on Park Avenue on February 24, causing £200 worth of damage.
The commotion woke up neighbours and police traced the 18-year-old a short distance away.
His knuckles were bleeding and Hills, of Lawrence Court in Buckhaven, told officers he had hit a tree.
He was arrested and placed in a police van but began spitting, later requiring a spit hood.
He became “agitated and aggressive” as the vehicle took him to Dunfermline police station.
Hills, who works in the hospitality sector, also challenged police to fight.
He admitted damaging the car and acting in an abusive manner, threatening violence and assault.
Sheriff James Williamson deferred sentencing for reports until March 22.
Snapchat rape threat
Joshua Nelson, 26, from Glenrothes was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for telling a 12-year-old girl on Snapchat he would “rape her”. There was no existing evidence of the girl’s claims she had told Nelson her age and he claimed he thought his message had been to an adult and had been a “kink thing”.
Football phone folly
A Fife man drove to a friend’s house to retrieve his phone despite drinking before and after a football match earlier that day.
William Penman, of Birnam Road in Kirkcaldy, was stopped by police when they saw his car swerving on the town’s Fair Isle Road on January 27.
He was found to be more than twice the legal limit.
The court heard Penman, 48, had been to a football match in Glasgow and had consumed alcohol before and after the game.
Procurator fiscal depute Michael Robertson told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court when police first stopped him, Penman said he had three Magners about three hours beforehand.
Defence lawyer Martin McGuire said his client was at the match with a friend who was driving.
Mr McGuire said Penman then decided to get in his own car to drive to the friend’s house, believing he had left his mobile phone behind.
He was stopped by police as he drove home.
Sheriff Maryam Labaki fined Penman £266 and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.
The sheriff said: “You do appreciate that given officers described swerving on the road, you are lucky nobody was injured.”
Attempted murder petition
A 27-year-old man has appeared in court accused of attempting to murder a man near Glenrothes. Ryan McLay appeared in private at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to face the allegation in connection with an incident in Leslie High Street last week.
Phone threats
A St Andrews man has admitted making threatening phone calls over a 24-hour period.
Christopher Fernie, 39, pled guilty to bombarding Lewis Conroy via telephone on January 26.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Fernie had accused Mr Conroy of talking about him “behind his back”.
From around 7am on the morning of January 26 to the early hours of January 27, Fernie made numerous attempts to threaten Mr Conroy.
Eventually, the victim called police, who heard on loudspeaker one of the calls made by Fernie.
In one call, Fernie said he would set another man on Mr Conroy to “batter him”, as well as saying he would “do him in” for what he had said.
Fernie, of Langlands Road, St Andrews, admitted that on January 26 to 27 at an address on Forgan Place, St Andrews, for the purposes of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to Lewis Conroy, he persistently phoned and threatened Mr Conroy with violence, contrary to the Communications Act 2003.
Sheriff Eric Brown deferred sentence for reports until March 29.
Caravan fraud denied
A former motorhome dealer has been accused of ripping off more than £750,000 from customers by selling their vans and keeping the cash. Christine Galloway denies conning customers of St Andrews Motorhomes out of thousands of pounds they expected to be paid over a period of two years and will stand trial later in the year.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
