A cold-hearted Fife thief who ran off with an pensioner’s handbag after she collapsed on the street will be behind bars until next year.
Darren Johnstone found the vulnerable pensioner on the ground outside the Co-op on Lauder Road, Kirkcaldy.
While a friend tried to help her, Johnstone made off with her bag, which contained a phone, bank cards and £500 in cash.
Johnstone was jailed for the theft, along with a string of other offences.
Unconscious victim
Johnstone, currently an inmate at Perth Prison, previously appeared by video link to admit the July 12 theft, having already pled guilty to a string of subsequent offences.
Previously, fiscal depute Andrew Brown said: “At 7.15pm on July 12, the complainer attended the Co-op to purchase cigarettes.
“On reaching the locus, she fell unconscious and was lying, cold, at the front door.”
Johnstone and his friend Paul Brennan were walking past and Mr Brennan attempted to help.
Mr Brown continued: “The accused has moved towards the bag and picked it up.”
After he ran off, CCTV was examined by police.
At a subsequent hearing, a court was told the woman whose handbag was pinched had collapsed due to “intoxication.”
Further crimes
As well as the theft, Johnstone pled guilty to breaching bail by being with Mr Brennan on Lauder Road and again hours later at Smeaton Gardens in Kirkcaldy.
He pled guilty to throwing bricks at a window there following an argument with Mr Brennan.
Police traced him passed out near Victoria Hospital in possession of the pensioner’s bank card and bus pass.
When he woke in a hospital bed after midnight, he assaulted PC Chris Archer, striking him on the body with his head.
During his offending, Johnstone was subject to bail orders from Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline Sheriff Courts.
Order ignored again
34-year-old Johnstone, of King Street in Cowdenbeath, is about to become a grandfather.
He returned to Dunfermline Sheriff Court via a video link from prison to be sentenced for the offending, along with another complaint he faced.
Johnstone earlier admitted breaching a non-harassment order (NHO) in place to separate him from his former partner.
But the day after he was released from a 45-day prison sentence imposed for breaching the order previously, he and the woman entered his Cowdenbeath home.
They stayed there from June 29 this year until July 4, remaining in constant breach of the order.
Caged
Previously, a defence solicitor stated Johnstone has used drugs recreationally since a very young age.
At the sentencing hearing, lawyer Zander Flett said: “He recognises he has issues which he requires to address.”
Sheriff Susan Duff jailed Johnstone for 16 months.
Eight months related to the NHO breach and the other eight were imposed in connection with his Kirkcaldy offences.
The sheriff said: “I note that this is a second breach which appeared to have occurred the day after you were released from the sentence on the first breach.”
Johnstone’s sentence was backdated to July 15 when he was first remanded.
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