A drink-drive suspect who shouted over police as they tried to breathalyse him has been banned from the road for 16 months and fined £540.
Dawid Modrzejewski, of Struan Road, Perth, stank of booze and was struggling to string sentences together when police pulled over his works van in Perth’s Moulin Crescent.
The 33-year-old appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted failing to provide breath samples on April 30 last year.
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding told the court Modrzejewski was taken to Police Scotland’s Dundee headquarters but as officers tried to carry out dri k-drive procedures he shouted over them and and the interpreter who was provided to help.
Sheriff John MacRitchie told Modrzejewski: “You cannot avoid significant disqualification by refusing to provide breath specimens.”
Shooting fatality trial
A shooting agent has told the High Court in Dundee of the phone call he received to tell him there had been a fatality in the party he had organised near Dundee. Peter Bruce had left the scene to get petrol when the shot was fired by Franco Moroni that killed Marco Cavola.
Knocked out during abuse
A Brechin woman has admitted knocking her partner unconscious during a four-month campaign of abuse from October 19 2022 to February 20.
Courtney Morgan, 29, of Montrose Street in Brechin, engaged in a course of conduct which was abusive towards her former partner by repeatedly accusing her of infidelity and demanding to read messages on her phone.
Morgan bit the woman on her head, leaving her injured.
She demanded keys from her partner and emptied a drawer of her possessions onto the floor, before repeatedly striking the woman with the drawer.
She repeatedly sent the woman messages, pushed her on the body and prevented her from leaving her home, demanding she remain within the house.
She punched her partner on the head, causing her to fall to the ground, kicked her on the body repeatedly, threw her to the ground and repeatedly struck her head on the road, before dragging her along the ground and striking her head on a wall.
She went on to seize her partner’s mobile phone, damaged it and then struck her on the head, rendering her unconscious.
On February 20 Morgan was caught driving with excess alcohol (74 mics/22) in Brechin.
Morgan further admitted breaching bail on February 20 by contacting her partner.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael released Morgan on bail with conditions not to approach the woman and she will be sentenced at Forfar Sheriff Court in March when reports are prepared.
High Court for paedophile
“Very high risk” Dundee paedophile Logan Summers, who sexually abused a child in a tent behind a city supermarket, will be sentenced by a High Court judge. The 20-year-old pressured multiple young girls, some as young as nine, into sending explicit images. The paedophile told his young victims he would “take the risk” of jail as he exploited them for naked photos and underage sex.
Prison scrap
An armed robber has been fined £500 for fighting at Perth Prison.
Paul Greig, 32, who was locked up for a raid on a Kirkcaldy shop in 2019, admitted his role in a brawl in the jail’s C Hall.
Greig, of Valley Gardens, Kirkcaldy, admitted – while acting with others – behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear or alarm by engaging in a fight on February 27 2020.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the incident was described as a “stand-up fight” that lasted only a few seconds.
Neither inmate wanted to report an assault and there were no injuries.
Co-accused Michael Collins was fined £450 for his part in the brawl earlier this year.
One point off a ban
Markinch motorist Connor Smith skidded in front of an ambulance before crashing his car on the A92. The 21-year-old admitted driving carelessly but kept his licence when the sheriff gave him eight points on a licence which already contained three, so he would not lose out on a promotion at Kwik Fit. One more point will mean an automatic ban.
Can’t find payment destination
Prosecutors are unable to trace a business owner whose struggling restaurant firm is owed £19,059.
Hospitality group Kained Holdings – who own Glasgow’s Lebowski’s – were victims of embezzlement by James Killen, from Auchterarder.
The 36-year-old took advantage of a new banking system to swipe the cash from the restaurant in Glasgow’s Finnieston between October 22 and 30 2018, while employed as the general manager.
Killen was caught after an audit and pled guilty to a single charge of embezzlement at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Kained Holdings has been ordered to wind up by a court as they are unable to pay debts and liquidators have been appointed.
Killen’s lawyer told a sentencing hearing a total of £19,059.56 is held by her firm and it is ready to pay but prosecutor Hannah Sweeney said the Crown has not identified where the money should go.
She added: “Inquries are ongoing from my office which have been fruitless… phone calls have been made to various restaurants who are part of the group.”
Sentence was further deferred for five weeks by Sheriff Ian Fleming for the Crown to find a destination for the cash.
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page.
