A Burntisland man stole hundreds of pounds from a pensioner he was caring for after his victim was admitted to hospital.
Jason Paterson used the 81-year-old’s bank card to withdraw £1,000 in multiple transactions.
The theft was discovered when the man’s family opened his bank statements.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that the victim had previously given Paterson permission to withdraw money for him, but had not done so on this occasion.
Paterson’s defence agent said his client received just £320 a month in benefits.
Paterson, of Rossend Terrace, admitted using the card to steal from an ATM on the town’s High Street between October 5 and November 1, 2021.
Sheriff James Williamson ordered him to return to court in November with at least £160 saved to prove he could compensate his victim.
Hammer robber jailed
An armed robber who was chased out of a Dundee newsagents by a feisty pensioner has been sent to prison for a year.
Brian Millar was forced to flee from the store he was raiding by the brave 70-year-old woman who had stepped in to work behind the counter.
Fearless pensioner Jean McGill stood up to Millar as he repeatedly tried to hit her with a hammer as she protected the takings in the shop till.
Ms McGill – who was only working to cover a friend’s illness – pulled a hammer of her own and lashed out at Millar as he tried to steal money for drugs.
Millar managed to grab a handful of notes before running from the scene – followed by the plucky OAP who hurled her own hammer at him as he scarpered.
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown said: “The nature of the offence is a violent one so I will have to impose a custodial sentence.”
She jailed Millar for 12 months and added a six-month period of supervised release.
Drunk driver caught after prang
An Arbroath drink driver was still two-and-a-half times the legal limit when he was breathalysed five-and-a-half hours after he phoned police to tell them he’d crashed.
David Murray called officers to say he’d pranged his private-plated motor on Maple Gardens in Arbroath just before 4.30am on January 21.
Officers attended and found both his car and the parked vehicle he struck with frontal damage.
Murray, of Annfield Drive, identified himself as the driver and failed the roadside breath test.
He was taken to Ninewells and wasn’t breathalysed again until 9.50am after he’d been released and taken to West Bell Street HQ.
There, he recorded a reading of 55 mics of alcohol in his system, above the limit of 22.
Solicitor Billy Rennie said the first offender had since lost his job.
Mr Rennie explained his client had fled the home after a fallout, but added: “He accepts he could have dealt with this another way.”
Sheriff Garry Sutherland banned Murray for a year.
Murray, 46, was also fined £320.
Dafties defence
A 19-year-old was caught on camera vandalising a sign at a Glenrothes multi-storey car park, a court has heard.
Jude Bishop pled guilty to pulling the sign off an electricity cupboard at the Kingdom Centre car park on October 23 last year.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard he was later identified from CCTV by police.
Procurator fiscal depute Eve McKaig told the court a nightshift CCTV operator spotted Bishop “rip off a sign” from the electricity cupboard door, and saw other young men he was with kicking a door and ripping other signs off.
The witness contacted police due to concerns items would be thrown from the car park middle level to the road below.
The fiscal depute said: “Officers attended at 7.40pm and saw signs lying on the roadway”.
Ms McKaig said £700 worth of damage was caused in total but stressed this cost figure does not only relate to Bishop.
Asked by Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith if others had been identified and prosecuted, Ms McKaig said she was not aware they had.
Defence lawyer David Cranston said: “The ‘tall, ginger-haired boy’ was identified from (witness) statements, which is unlucky for Mr Bishop”.
Mr Cranston said Bishop, of Milnwood Court, Glenrothes, was with friends at the time and they were “drunk.”
The solicitor said that on reply to the charge his client said, “we were just being dafties”.
Mr Cranston said Bishop has applied for apprenticeships with Glasgow City Council and Network Rail and is investigating the possibility of studying engineering at college.
Sheriff Niven-Smith deferred sentence on Bishop for three months for him to be of good behaviour.
The sheriff told him if he stays out of trouble he will be admonished.
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A mother-of-two who supplied paper soaked in designer drugs to her incarcerated boyfriend at HMP Perth has avoided being locked up.
Hayley Watson is thought to have used a child to pass the cannabis-laced sheet to prisoner Kevin Hogg.
The 36-year-old denied allegations she was concerned in the supply of a class B synthetic cannabinoid compound, listed on court papers as “ADB-4EN-PINACA”.
But she was convicted following a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
After background reports were completed, Watson was given a community payback order to last nine months.
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