A Fife funeral director accused of defrauding dozens of customers has had his case pushed back.
Barry Stevenson-Hamilton’s case was administratively adjourned and will now call again on July 5 at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
It is alleged Stevenson-Hamilton, while director of Stevenson Funeral Directors and Funeral Care Scotland Ltd obtained a sum of money greater than £170,000 by fraudulently offering prepaid funeral care packages from branches in Fife.
The 39-year-old, of Old Dalkeith Road in Edinburgh, denies the charges, which involve 52 complainers.
‘Fanny’
A Methilhill man who made nuisance 999 calls to police told officers: “I was being a fanny” – and a sheriff agreed. Stuart Yule, 35, bombarded the emergency line with calls after an argument with his father.
Child neglect charges
A Glenrothes woman is accused of failing to adequately supervise a five-year-old who was left permanently impaired after falling from a second floor window.
It is alleged Sarah Humphreys was downstairs playing online games when the child plunged from an upstairs room on September 18 last year.
At a first calling at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Humphreys, of Tern Place, pled not guilty to two charges of child neglect.
The 30-year-old faces allegations that at a property in Glenrothes’s Morar Court and while she had caring responsibility for the child, along with two others aged eight and four, she failed to provide adequate supervision.
It is alleged the fall left the five-year-old severely injured, permanently impaired and put her life at risk.
A further charge alleges Humphreys neglected the three children on the same date by failing to provide them with a suitably clean home environment or adequate bedding.
Sheriff Maryam Labaki fixed a further first diet hearing.
Not a Saint
Perth Sheriff Court has heard how a 43-year-old St Johnstone fan joined a mob which broke down barriers, threw pyrotechnics and shouted “F*** the police” during the celebrations as the Scottish Cup was returned to McDiarmid Park. Anthony Green was fined £3000 because the sheriff said he could not impose a football banning order.
Seven-years bad luck?
A Perth man who smashed up his own mirror during a drunken row with his girlfriend has been fined £600.
Aldo Blackley was found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, towards his partner Lucy Weir.
The charge states the 38-year-old “threw a candle at a mirror,” causing it to break.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the pair got into an argument at a property in Back Street, Bridge of Earn, on August 10 2020.
Sales executive Ms Weir, who is still Blackley’s girlfriend, told the trial: “He’d been drinking. We were both arguing back and forth.”
She said she saw the broken mirror in the bedroom with a candle lying nearby.
Sheriff Francis Gill rejected a submission from Blackley’s solicitor David Holmes that there was no evidence led by the crown of any abusive or threatening behaviour.
Mr Holmes said the mirror cost about £150 and his client replaced it.
Sheriff Gill told Blackley, of Gowans Terrace: “Alcohol is no excuse and you realise that your behaviour was unacceptable.”
The sheriff said a non-harassment order was not appropriate.
Teacher trial
Teacher Dean Bromage, 34, from Monifieth will stand trial in August at Dundee Sheriff Court accused of sexual assault and lewd and libidinous practices..
Bromage, of Fothringham Drive, Monifieth, pled not guilty via letter.
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
