Police are hunting for three Romanian nationals accused of stealing £56,000 from a van in Arbroath.
Sandu Niculae, 50, Auerlia Oancea, 39, and 51-year-old Marian Oancea are alleged to have committed a similar theft in Aberdeen.
Prosecutors say £7,000 was stolen from an unlocked van in the interior car park of Aberdeen railway station on August 5 2022.
On September 2 that year, all three – previously listed as residing in Coventry – allegedly stole £56,000 in cash from an insecure van on Marketgate, Arbroath.
Niculae was due to appear this week for a first diet in connection with the allegations.
Warrants had previously been granted for the co-accused.
Defence solicitor Doug McConnell said he had received information Niculae had returned to Romania.
Sheriff Paul Brown issued a warrant for his arrest.
High-speed chase
Young driver Jack Johnson, who led a “convoy” of police on a high speed chase around Kinross-shire and Fife has been banned from the road. The 22-year-old was told he was lucky nobody died during the dramatic late night pursuit.
Needle strike
A 37-year-old woman has admitted striking a police officer in the hand with a needle, exposing him to risk of infection and causing injury.
Abby-Mae Watson appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court by video link to prison to plead guilty to assaulting the constable at Kiln Wynd, Kirkcaldy, on April 5 last year.
The court heard he suffered a scratch to the index finger of his left hand.
Watson’s defence lawyer said his client had relapsed into drug use last year and had either just taken or was about to take drugs at the time of the offence.
He said: “Thankfully there was no level of infection to the officer”.
Sheriff Charles Lugton told Watson: “Your actions put a police officer at serious risk of infection”.
The sheriff said the officer had a six-month wait to find out if he had been infected.
Watson was jailed for 12 months, backdated to April 15 this year.
Campus attack
A criminology student attacked two police officers after taking refuge inside his Arbroath college campus. Macallan Gordon managed to get into Arbroath’s Dundee and Angus College building after he was assaulted by a friend when a birthday party turned violent.
Rapist warned
A man has been warned to expect a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of raping two women and molesting a child.
Niyel Lennock, 28, had denied all the charges during a trial at the High Court in Inverness.
He claimed some of the encounters had been consensual, while others simply had not happened.
A jury returned verdicts of guilty on all but one of the charges.
Lennock was convicted of six charges of rape and one of sexual assault against two women, as well as one count of sexually assaulting a primary school-aged child.
Lennock was also found guilty of abusive behaviour towards three women, as well as threatening to disclose and disclosing intimate photographs of a former partner.
He was cleared of one count of rape.
The crimes happened at locations in Invergordon, Evanton, Alness, Muir of Ord, Dingwall and Dundee between 2016 and 2022.
Judge Summers told Lennock: “The jury have found you guilty of a catalogue of very serious offences.
“It is quite clear that there will be no alternative available to the court other than to impose a lengthy custodial sentence.”
The judge adjourned sentencing for reports until next month and remanded Lennock, whose address was given as a prisoner in Perth, in custody in the meantime.
He also placed Lennock on the sex offenders register with immediate effect.
Sex toy ‘joke’
A man who told paedophile hunters he sent indecent images of a sex toy to a decoy as a “joke” has been ordered to perform unpaid work. Sali Saliev was caught sending a string of lewd messages over a two-month period to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
Topless rampage
Ian Campbell, 44, from Dundee, went on a topless rampage in Alyth’s Springbank area, before hurling homophobic abuse at police.
Perth Sheriff Court, where he pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, heard residents were woken by him angrily banging on a man’s front door during the outburst on December 16 last year.
One was woken by his son to tell him a man was attacking his front door and he looked out to see topless Campbell.
The man went to the door and Campbell, who was “clearly under the influence”, lunged forward, forcing him to step backwards and shut the door.
The fiscal depute said he continued kicking the door with such force the frame shook.
Later, Campbell was seen throwing a bag of tent poles at another door, while ranting: “You’re a thief,” and “you’re a f***ing s***ebag”.
One neighbour tried to capture the bizarre incident using her phone camera, but Campbell ran towards her.
Police found Campbell sitting under a garden gazebo and on the journey to Dundee headquarters, he called a female officer a “f***ing dyke c**t” and a male a “poof and a paedo”.
The fiscal depute said: “He made reference to being arrested by a gay cop and said that all cops were gay.”
Campbell, of Union Street, was ordered to carry out 210 hours unpaid work.
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