A Perth vandal cut his neighbour’s phone line because “the wi-fi was spying on him”.
Gary White twice took a pair of pliers to the BT Open Connect cable outside his home in North Port.
The 42-year-old appeared at the city’s sheriff court and admitted a charge of malicious mischief committed between October 12 and 28 2021.
White was later caught behind the wheel of a Volvo with so many defects it was deemed too dangerous to drive.
The court also heard, in a third separate offence, he attacked two police officers during a traffic stop in the city centre.
Wi-fi cut twice
The prosecutor said White’s upstairs neighbour had been using her internet at about midnight on October 12 2021.
“At this time everything was in order.
“Later, at 3.45am, she woke up and noticed her internet had stopped working.
“She went outside to check and saw that a cable had been damaged.”
Police attended later that morning, along with a BT Openreach engineer.
“He advised that the damage had been done deliberately.
“The engineer noted several markings as if someone had tried to cut through the rubber cable.”
On October 28, the same neighbour was at home when she noticed lights flickering on her router.
“Knowing that this meant the internet was about to fail, she ran out to check on the cable.
“She could see it had been cut again.
“Then she saw a figure going into the accused’s flat below.”
The next day, a friend saw White walking nearby with a pair of pliers and asked him what he was doing.
“He began speaking about signals and said the wi-fi was spying on him,” said the fiscal depute.
Dangerous Volvo
The court then heard how on September 16 2022 White was driving along Charlotte Street when he was pulled over by officers.
“A number of defects were detected and the accused was informed he could not safely drive his vehicle,” the fiscal depute said.
The Volvo V70 had defective tyres and lights, with all rear lights non-operational or obscured.
It had protruding sharp edges, no speedometer and interior door panels were missing, meaning they could not be opened from inside.
White told police: “It’s not dangerous, it’s fine – all of that just needs to be plugged back in.”
The car was seized so he could not drive away.
White pled guilty to a charge of dangerous driving because the vehicle was in such a position “it posed a risk of injury or damage to others”.
Police assault
He further admitted assaulting two police officers on Perth’s High Street on February 11 2022.
Ms Paterson said he positioned himself over his handbrake in his car and aimed both his feet at the them.
The court heard White had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
He had “delusions involving his neighbour,” Sheriff Clair McLachlan was told.
He was banned from driving for a year and placed on supervision for 18 months.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
