A young Angus farmer lost his job but narrowly clung onto his licence after scraping an Audi in Ferryden with his tractor, then fleeing the scene.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted driving the John Deere tractor carelessly on July 27 last year and then failing to report the William Street scrape to police.
Witnesses in a nearby beer garden heard a loud bang as he collided with the front bumper of a Audi TT while trying to turn his tractor.
His solicitor explained that after that season’s harvest had finished, he was let go by his employers.
He added the boy had been working 12 to 14 hours a day and had made a wrong turn into the street where “regrettably, he panicked.”
Forfar Sheriff Court heard the teen, from the Brechin area, had obtained the tractor licence aged 16 and receiving six points would have seen him banned.
Sheriff Krista Johnston, on being told the boy had a job offer from a Turriff-based agricultural firm on the basis he would be able to drive a tractor, issued him with five penalty points and fined him £260 plus a victim surcharge.
Cleared after trial
A former army wife has been cleared of stalking her cheating husband after a three-day trial. Rebecca Egerton-Jones, an ex-military police officer, said she felt “vindicated” as she walked free from Perth Sheriff Court “without a blemish on her character”, according to the presiding sheriff.
Not a Queen fan
A Perth man who launched into an anti-Queen tirade in the back of a police van after being busted for blasting out Irish rebel songs in the early hours of the morning has dodged a prison sentence.
Officers were called to Ewan Grant’s flat in Drummond Crescent following complaints from neighbours about loud music.
The 32-year-old lost the plot as he was transported to Dundee police station.
Grant chanted pro-IRA verse “ooh ah, up the ‘RA” and told officers they were “a bunch of paedophiles employed by the Queen.”
Grant, who was last year jailed for a grisly assault in Perth city centre, was warned he could be sent back behind bars in December after he was found guilty of two counts of threatening and abusive behaviour.
His solicitor insisted Grant was not sectarian or anti-Protestant, and noted he used to go out with a woman named after former Northern Irish First Minister Ian Paisley.
Grant was unable to attend court for sentencing on Friday for health reasons.
Sheriff Francis Gill placed him on supervision for a year.
‘Mr Big’ caught in Dundee
A “Mr Big” was caught in Dundee in a Mercedes containing nearly £50,000 as part of a major police operation, a court heard. Alleged crime boss Wai Ma has since disappeared but associate Xiaotong Huang wept as she was jailed for laundering money for him.
Sainsbury’s assault
Sheryl Inston struck a Sainsbury’s worker on the head and tried to snatch her security camera from her neck because they would not take back a phone she said was faulty.
Inston, 43, of Kenmay Gardens, Dundee assaulted the worker on November 2 2022 in the Broughty Ferry store.
She had already been at the Broughty Ferry supermarket the day before, when she allegedly shouted and swore at staff, although the Crown accepted she was not guilty of that offence.
However, the following day she returned and after apologising for her previous behaviour, again became aggressive with shop workers who said the phone was not broken.
The employee dealing with Inston decided to switch on a body camera — which records customer interactions in difficult situations — but that seemed to exacerbate the situation.
Depute fiscal Emma Farmer told Dundee Sheriff Court: “The accused lunged forward and struck (her) on the head.
“She tried to take the camera from her. There were no injuries libelled.”
Defence solicitor David Duncan, in mitigation for Inston, said: “She is someone who finds social interactions in public difficult.
“She has a genuine belief there was a fault the product.
“She overreacted, things went from bad to worse.”
Fining her £200, Sheriff Gregor Murray said: “I accept you find public places difficult but that does not excuse what you did to someone who was just doing their job.”
Indecent proposal
A Rosyth man who sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl after showering her with gifts and asking her to marry him has been sentenced to offender supervision. Craig Hamilton, 19, sent the youngster naked images of himself and urged her to reciprocate.
Domestic brute
A Fife man carried out a shocking campaign of violence against a former partner over a two-year period.
Ethan Cartwright, 24, pled guilty to engaging in a course of abusive behaviour which included seizing the woman by the throat and restricting her breathing, headbutting and punching her in the face, kneeing her in the head, grabbing her mouth and nose, and biting her on the leg.
The offending took place between November 6 2020 and November 11 2022 at properties in Dunfermline and elsewhere.
Procurator fiscal depute Laura McManus told the Dunfermline Sheriff Court on one occasion in March 2021 : “He compressed her throat from behind and he grabbed her mouth and nose”.
The following month, the woman was putting on makeup and Cartwright “suddenly attacked her” and compressed her throat “almost causing her to pass out” before punching her in the face.
The fiscal depute said on another occasion in February 2021 he pinned the woman up against a fence “for some 20 minutes” in Dunfermline’s Rex Park.
Ms McManus said as she shouted and screamed for help, a witness who tried to stop him recorded a video of the incident.
The court heard about another two occasions last year in which the woman recalled being kneed in the face by Cartwright.
On occasions in late 2020 he bit the woman on her inner thigh and headbutted her.
Cartwright, who appeared in court via video link from Perth prison, pled guilty to two other charges.
He admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, by shouting and swearing and challenging members of the public to a fight and pulling a knife out of his pocket at Kirkgate, Dunfermline, on October 21 last year.
He also admitted being unlawfully in possession of the knife.
Sentence was deferred to June 8 for background reports.
Cleared over death crash
A pensioner has been cleared of driving carelessly when he struck and killed a pedestrian who was crossing the road in Lochee. 68-year-old William McIntosh was high on a cocktail of drink and drugs and clad in dark clothing when he was struck by Stewart Clark on a rainy winter afternoon in December 2020.
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