A one-time drug dealer offered a lift home by police after being found in his partner’s garden in Fife was caught with a metal knuckleduster.
Saeid Berwinn previously admitted possessing the offensive weapon at Cumbrae Park in Glenrothes on January 22 this year.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard police were asked to attend a domestic disturbance but established no criminality.
Officers offered Berwinn, who was in the rear garden, a lift home but had to search him first.
He told them he had a knuckleduster, which was seized.
Solicitor David Bell explained his client had been jailed while studying aircraft engineering and then became injured while working as a railway engineer.
In 2019, Berwinn was locked up after amphetamines worth £13,000 were found his home.
Mr Bell said Berwinn now works occasional shifts in his father’s takeaway shop.
The 31-year-old, of The Beeches in Glenrothes, was admonished by Sheriff Robert More.
Culpable homicide charge
A woman has appeared in court charged with culpable homicide following the death of a security guard at an Arbroath supermarket.
Emergency services were called to the Asda in Westway Retail Park on Sunday evening.
Police said a 61-year-old employee was found unresponsive and died at the scene.
Natasha Smith, 37, has appeared in private at Forfar Sheriff Court in connection with the incident.
She faces four charges including culpable homicide, prosecutors have confirmed.
Port-wielding troublemaker
A 37-year-old man made violent threats to a Fife M&S employee while holding a bottle of port.
Christopher Godden was already barred from the Dunfermline High Street store and the staff member recognised him and asked him to leave on April 13 last year.
Prosecutor Charlotte Allan told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that Godden was carrying a glass bottle of port at the time and placed his arm around the employee before saying: “You don’t want me to react with this bottle in my hand”.
He then put the bottle down and walked away saying: “You don’t know who I am, I am well known in Dunfermline”.
Around 6:20pm that day, Godden was given a lift to his then Rosyth home and on arriving he was unable to find his keys and began shouting.
Witnesses looked out from their homes and saw Godden “shouting for people to fight him,” the fiscal said.
Police arrested him and took him to Dunfermline police station, where Godden told officers they were “going to hell”.
Godden, now of Michael Street, Buckhaven, previously pled guilty to two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Defence lawyer Stephen Morrison said the main issue for Godden was alcohol misuse but highlighted a background report in saying that, since being released from a jail sentence six months ago, Godden has abstained from alcohol.
The solicitor said Godden is also working and that things appear to be “moving in the right direction”.
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon sentenced Godden to 135 hours of unpaid work.
Threatened to kill dog
A woman abducted a Kirkcaldy man after holding a meat fork to his neck in front of his parents.
Cheryl Henderson sparked an armed response when she told her frightened victim she would murder him unless someone brought her drugs.
During the ordeal, 38-year-old Henderson also picked a dog up by its ears and threatened to kill it during the incident at a property in Cairns Street East.
She appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court by video link to prison to plead guilty to the abduction and assault and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on January 10.
Sheriff Charles Lugton jailed her for two years.
Charged under Rent Act
A 25-year-old man has been accused of throwing a Dundee city centre tenant out of her home unlawfully and racially abusing her.
Jake Gibb is accused of acting in a racially aggravated manner as well as facing a charge under the Rent (Scotland) Act 1984.
Prosecutors allege that on January 18 this year, Gibb “deprived or attempted to deprive” the woman of her occupation of the flat on Whitehall Crescent.
This was allegedly by removing her property from the flat and demanding she leave without having reasonable cause to believe that she had ceased to reside there.
Gibb, whose address is listed as the same flat on Whitehall Crescent, allegedly acted aggressively, shouted and repeatedly made offensive racial remarks during the incident.
At Dundee Sheriff Court, Gibb’s case was continued without plea to a case management next month by Sheriff Peter Grant-Hutchison.
Passengers shocked by racist tirade
A Fife joiner shocked fellow passengers when he burst into an “appalling” tirade of anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim abuse during an Edinburgh to Dundee train journey.
Joseph Becman shouted that all Muslims should be castrated and said: “Death to them all.”
The 40-year-old appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to a racially aggravated charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner on the 11pm service from Edinburgh Haymarket on December 6 last year.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
