A domestic abuser set fire to his partner’s passport on holiday, stole money from her and chased her along a Broughty Ferry street.
After a three-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, Roland Thomas, 24, was found guilty of engaging in an abusive course of conduct towards the woman between August 5 and November 21 last year.
Thomas behaved abusively at addresses in Dundee and Broughty Ferry and a hotel in Tenerife.
He was convicted of repeatedly adopting an aggressive attitude, shouting, swearing and damaging parked and unattended vehicles on Long Lane, Broughty Ferry, by punching them.
Thomas told the woman it was her fault he damaged the vehicles, accused her of infidelity, deprived her of her mobile phone and interrogated it without her permission.
During the Tenerife holiday, Thomas made derogatory remarks, seized her hair, pulled it, threw personal items around a hotel room, damaging them and the hotel room itself.
He stole money from the woman and set fire to her passport, before placing his arm around her neck.
Thomas also chased her along Strathern Road in Dundee and seized her clothing.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael also found him guilty of a separate charge of damaging a vehicle on Long Lane between August 5 and 6 2023 and behaving aggressively towards a man, as well as making homophobic remarks.
Solicitor John Boyle said while his client continues to deny the specifics of the allegations, he has recognised issues surrounding his behaviour, including alcohol and cocaine abuse and mental health difficulties for which he is being medicated.
As an alternative to prison, Thomas was ordered to perform 240 hours of unpaid work, placed on an 8.30pm and 8am curfew for four months and given a two-year non-harassment order.
Running cheat
A benefits cheat who was caught on video doing daily 5k runs near her Perthshire home while claiming nearly £70,000 of disability aid has been jailed.
Former care worker Annette Bond told the Department for Work and Pensions she was too sick to walk and needed a stick to get around.
But her lies were exposed when a private investigator secretly recorded her going on regular early morning jogs over roads and through woodlands.
Video, released by Crown Office prosecutors, shows Bond setting out from her home in running gear for half-hour jogs through the countryside.
A sheriff called it “a prolonged and egregious course of dishonesty, for which there is no excuse.”
Coke fix
A mechanic faces a jail sentence after cocaine was found in a garage he was renting.
Ryan Jones, 26, was storing the class A drug in a carrier bag at RJ Automotive, Southend, Thornton, on November 18 2022.
Jones, of Elm Lane, Glenrothes, appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to plead guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Prosecutor Alistair McDermid told the court police searched the garage and seized the carrier bag of cocaine, which was on top of a toolbox, and a press used to compress powder.
Jones, the sole tenant of the unit, confirmed he was the only user of the garage and everything in it belonged to him.
The fiscal depute said the cocaine in the bag weighed just over 436g and was partially compressed, with a purity of 80%.
Depending on how it would have been sold, the cocaine had a potential value of between £24,000 and £43,600.
Defence lawyer Martin McGuire said first offender Jones’ involvement was to provide a facility for drugs to be stored by another person.
The solicitor said his client is a fully qualified mechanic, is self-employed and specialises in engine rebuilds.
Jones is listed as the director of RJ Automotive LTD on Companies House but the company status is noted as dissolved since August last year.
Sheriff Williamson deferred sentence until June 10 for background reports and bail was continued.
Face slasher
A man was left “screaming in pain” after being slashed from ear to mouth in a violent attack in Dundee. James Drinnan is facing a lengthy prison sentence after admitting carrying out the knife assault last summer.
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