A woman has admitted injuring a 63-year-old cyclist in a careless collision in Perthshire.
Laura Taylor, 34, drove into the path of James Law as he pedalled down Bridgeton Brae, Almondbank on March 21 last year.
Taylor was originally charged with causing Mr Law serious injury through careless or inconsiderate driving but prosecutors accepted her guilty plea to an amended charge of careless driving.
The charge states Taylor, of Firbank Road, Perth, failed to keep a proper look-out and turned right when it was not safe to do so.
She collided with Mr Law’s bike, causing him to fall onto the road and was injured as a result.
Taylor was unable to attend Perth Sheriff Court as her plea was tendered by solicitor Linda Clark and Sheriff Craig McSherry deferred sentence to August 23.
Predator guilty
59-year-old Robert Brown from Fife has been found guilty of sexually abusing two boys and is now behind bars. A trial heard he targeted one of the children from when they were aged nine and the other from the age of 14.
‘You get what you pay for’
A Montrose tree surgeon caught behind the wheel of a dangerously defective van has been given penalty points.
Michael Johnstone, 24, appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit driving a 55-plate Citreon Dispatch at 3pm Coronation Avenue on January 2 this year.
Fiscal depute Elizabeth Hodgson said: “The vehicle was inspected (by police) and found to contain large amounts of rubble.
“The horn was found to be defective. The exhaust pipe was completely snapped between the muffler and the resonator.
“It seemed to be trailing extremely close to the ground.
“The accused appeared to be fully aware of the defective exhaust and the nearside tyre was extremely underinflated.
“The windscreen washers were not working despite there being fluid within the system.”
A warning light was on signalling a fault with the vehicle’s airbags.
Solicitor Sarah Russo said: “He had a Volvo car. There was a problem. Due to that problem, the car had gone into the garage to be fixed.
“He needed a vehicle at that particular time. He bought the van to cover him over that period of time.
“The van had a full MOT certificate when he purchased it. He didn’t realise the full extent.
“A lesson has been learned that you get, effectively, what you pay for. It has been a salient lesson to him.”
Ms Russo said Johnstone scrapped the van days later.
The first offender, of Provost Reid Road in Montrose was fined £225, plus a £20 victim surcharge, and had three penalty points imposed.
£1.5 million cocaine haul
A convicted rapist was caught with £1.5 million worth of cocaine on the A90 near Dundee. Tom Farquhar, 28, from Aberdeen, was stopped in an Audi S3 on the dual carriageway last September 1.
Drink-drive pensioner
A 76-year-old woman has admitted crashing a car while more than three times the drink drive limit.
Beryl Divers almost struck a pedestrian while drunkenly driving a Toyota Aygo on March 15 this year on Turnberry Avenue in Dundee.
Divers submitted a letter to Dundee Sheriff Court admitting driving with excess alcohol (165mgs/ 50).
The pensioner also pled guilty to driving carelessly on the wrong side of the road, failing to navigate a bend and colliding with a parked car while trying to park in a bay.
She then accelerated harshly and struck the pavement, almost hitting a pedestrian in the process.
In her letter to the court, Divers, of Dalmahoy Drive, wrote: “I am extremely embarrassed, ashamed and truly remorseful.”
Sheriff John Rafferty deferred sentence until September for a social work report to be prepared and for Divers to appear personally in court.
Terrorism charge
A man has appeared in court in Kirkcaldy and been remanded in connection with an alleged breach of the Terrorism Act in Methil last week. Curtis Ross, 23, appeared in private at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on Friday.
Breath test refusal
A Dundee joiner who refused to provide suspicious police officers with a breath sample must now drive with “extraordinary circumspection” after being given 10 penalty points – two below an automatic ban.
Dorian Marszalek, 36, admitted he refused to provide police with breath specimens on July 9 last year.
Marszalek, who represented himself in Dundee Sheriff Court, had been brought to West Bell Street HQ following a traffic incident near Lidl on South Ward Road.
The former professional driver-turned-joiner explained he had never had so much as a speeding ticket before.
Sentencing, Sheriff George Way opted not to disqualify him but said: “You have to drive with extraordinary circumspection.
“Ten points is a serious cliff edge.”
Marszalek, of Ancrum Court in Dundee, was also fined £300 and a £20 victim surcharge.
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