A Carnoustie shop worker has admitted stealing booze while on shift at a town Premier Store.
Susan Martin was not present at Forfar Sheriff Court when solicitor Billy Rennie admitted the five theft charges on her behalf.
Martin stole quantities of alcohol twice in June 18 last year and on three other occasions that month.
Not guilty pleas were accepted to allegations she stole booze on another five occasions at the High Street convenience store.
Mr Rennie said: “This is in the course of her duties of working at this locus.
“She’s also had involvement with drink agencies.”
Sheriff Mungo Bovey deferred sentencing on 41-year-old Martin, or Ravensby Place in Carnoustie, until March 7.
Asda absconder
An armed robber who absconded from HMP Castle Huntly was found wandering around a supermarket nearly 100 miles away. John Paul Lynch was caught browsing the aisles in Paisley’s Asda after two days on the run.
Machete scrap
A Fife man was caught with a machete and a knife after challenging two males to a fight in Leslie.
Leon Robb, 23, ended up injured in Paterson Park on June 23 last year.
He was taken to hospital, where he made threats to police officers.
Robb, of Provestland, Glenrothes, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to admit unlawfully carrying the weapons and two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Prosecutor Christine Allan said the two other males had been in the front garden of a property with machete-style knives and that Robb was also armed.
The fiscal depute said Robb stated “come on then” and demanded they come into the street and “put the knives down and fight like real men”.
Police received calls about the fight and officers found Robb, bleeding heavily.
In the early morning hours, police went to Victoria Hospital due to Robb being abusive and he called them “murderers, piggies and piglets”.
The stream of abuse continued after he was arrested.
Sentencing was deferred for reports and Robb’s bail was conti
Nipple trouble
A registered sex offender from Angus has admitted causing a nuisance by drunkenly rubbing his nipples on the doorstep of his own home. Serial pest Gavin Ross has appeared back in the dock at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit acting in a manner “likely to cause fear or alarm.”
Screwdriver and garden fork
Screwdriver-wielding thug Gary Cummings, 34, threatened to stab supermarket workers in Perth.
He ranted at employees in the city’s Tesco and Morrisons stores last year and was later seen pointing a pitchfork at a man in Newhouse Road.
Fiscal depute Emma Farmer told Perth Sheriff Court: “At around 9.25pm, a team manager at the store (Tesco, Crieff Road) approached Mr Cummings and asked if he had taken a bottle of gin.
“Mr Cummings said he did not but he had a screwdriver and he would harm the witness with it.”
A passing shopper commented: “I think he’s lying, he doesn’t have a screwdriver.”
Cummings replied: “I’m lying am I?” and produced the 4 inch tool.
Ms Farmer told the court Cummings clashed with staff at Morrisons at 7.40am two days later, on March 21.
He became agitated when told it was too early to buy alcohol and made stab threats, as well as other threats and abusive comments.
Later that day, police were called to a property in Newhouse Road in connection with another matter and saw Cummings holding a garden fork towards another man.
He ran off when he saw police.
Cummings admitted two counts of threatening or abusive behaviour and two charges of possession of an offensive weapon.
He has been in custody in relation to the incident since April last year.
When Sheriff Alison McKay said she would defer sentence for reports, Cummings said: “I’d rather just take the sentence” so he was jailed for 20 months.
Dognapper jailed
Railway worker Thomas Winning, who admitted his role in a £30,000 dognapping heist has been jailed for two years. He was part of a trio of masked men who forced their way into a pet owner’s home in Blairgowrie. The dogs, Betty and El Diablo, were never recovered.
No memory of assault
A drunken barman assaulted a woman during a Perth house party.
Ian McPherson admitted the November 27 2022 assault on Kite Way and behaving in a threatening or abusive way.
But the 37-year-old told Perth Sheriff Court he had no recollection of the incident.
The court heard that at about 7am, a woman asked a friend to start videoing McPherson’s abusive behaviour.
Fiscal depute Sam Craib said: “The complainer reminded the accused he was in her home.
“The accused then grabbed her, causing her to fall to the floor.”
She pushed him back and he also fell from his seat.
The woman then contacted police, while friends ejected McPherson from the property.
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said his client had been working behind the bar the night before and had been invited back to the complainer’s flat.
“He has no memory of what happened,” he said.
McPherson, of Iona Court, was placed on supervision for 12 months and ordered to engage with alcohol treatment services as a direct alternative to custody.
Robert Burns
A man called Robert Burns pled guilty to crimes in Fife as the world prepared to commemorate his namesake. The 42-year-old was convicted of multiple shoplifting offences in Kirkcaldy and Burntisland.
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