A teenager who crashed in Forfar while two girls screamed for him to stop speeding has been banned from driving.
Alex Young, 19, appeared at the town’s sheriff court to admit driving dangerously on March 3 this year.
On East High Street, Prior Road and Old Brechin Road, he drove at excessive speed and entered the opposing carriageway.
He lost control, mounted a grass verge and collided with a fence.
The court heard Young had only passed his test the previous July.
Fiscal depute Elizabeth Hodgson said: “In the early hours of the morning, the accused was driving a white Vauxhall Corsa.”
Young was giving two female friends a lift home and was clocked by police.
He began driving too fast and eventually careered off the road.
When police approached the vehicle, his uninjured passengers were “hysterical” and told officers they’d pleaded with him to stop.
Solicitor Billy Rennie explained Young is a civil engineering student with two part time jobs.
Mr Rennie said: “It seems to be entirely out of character.
“It seems to be, as so often is the case, a young man in the car with girls.
“This young man will be unlikely to trouble the courts again.”
Young, of Windyedge Place in Forfar, will be sentenced on August 15 after meeting with social workers.
Sheriff Derek Reekie disqualified him ad interim.
Jailed for ‘degrading’ sex attacks
A Fife predator who sexually assaulted two women and filmed one of his attacks has been jailed for four years.
George McGillvary, 60, used a sex toy on one of the women while she was unconscious on the floor at an address in Inverkeithing.
He took photos and a video as he abused her.
Sheriff Krista Johnston told him: “You took advantage of your victims in the most callous and degrading way.”
Meat cleaver assault
A man who bludgeoned his pal with a crowbar, before striking him with a meat cleaver, during a vicious, drug-fuelled attack at a Dundee multi has been told his sentence equates to time served on remand.
James Donnelly robbed Michael Mason of his bus pass and cash, before ordering him to leave his flat.
Mr Mason was later found battered, bruised and collapsed on his sofa by his housing officer.
Without warning he repeatedly struck the complainer with a crowbar to his body and struck his body with a meat cleaver once.
Donnelly robbed Mr Mason of £90 cash, a mobile phone, a bus pass and a set of keys, before demanding he leave.
He returned to the dock to be sentenced and was handed a backdated prison sentence of 314 days by Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown, equating to time served.
Xbox pal’s attempted robbery
A hammer-wielding masked man who staged a bizarre double robbery attempt against his friend in Fife – either side of spending the night at his home playing the Xbox – has been given unpaid work.
Daniel Jackson, 19, previously pled guilty to assault and attempted robbery on March 14 and 15 last year at an address in Dick Crescent, Burntisland.
Sheriff Robert More told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court at the time he could not recall such a “bizarre” case.
Jackson reappeared in court this week for sentencing.
The sheriff gave him 60 hours of unpaid work and a year of offender supervision as part of a community payback order.
Prosecutor Sarah Smith told the court previously that Jackson was getting a lift to Burntisland when the driver overheard him make a throwaway comment that he was “going to rob someone”.
She then heard him on the phone saying “it’s all happening tonight,” before dropping him off in the town.
Around 8pm that evening Jackson was seen on the stairs to the flat dressed all in black and holding a hammer. He was shouted at and fled.
The court heard the complainer’s partner later came home and Jackson, described in court as a friend of the complainer, arrived around 11:30pm.
The fiscal depute said: “They stayed and played the Xbox.
“He asked the accused to lock the door when he left in the morning and post the key through the letterbox.”
At around 7am the next day the complainer heard footsteps, then saw Jackson with a hammer above his head, asking him to give him what he had.
The man’s partner was also woken.
Jackson was all in black, wearing a ski mask, cap and sunglasses.
Police were contacted and traced him returning home and arrested him on suspicion of attempted robbery.
At the last hearing, defence lawyer Lee Qumsieh said Jackson, of High Street, Kirkcaldy, was in a “poor place mentally” and suffers from ADHD, for which he was not medicated at the time.
The solicitor said Jackson had been using cannabis and Xanax.
Mr Qumsieh said: “It’s a rather bizarre offence.
“The complainer was a good friend. He has lost his friendship.
“He does not have a good explanation for it, he accepts it would have been very alarming for the complainer.”
Low speed collision
A pedestrian was left with an open ankle fracture following a low-speed collision in Perth city centre.
Michael Kerr was crossing South Street when he was knocked down by a car turning out of Scott Street.
Pensioner Mary McFadden appeared at the city’s sheriff court and admitted causing Mr Kerr serious injury by driving without due care or attention on March 10 last year.
Sheriff Derek Reekie told the 74-year-old: “These cases are always very difficult for everyone involved.
“It’s a relatively new piece of legislation and it is inevitable I have to disqualify you.”
McFadden was banned from driving for a year and fined £750.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
