A drug mule caught transporting 18 kilos of cannabis between Perth and Dundee must complete unpaid work.
Mark Gordon, 55, admitted being concerned in the supply of the Class B drug on March 11 and 12 in 2022.
Police pulled over Gordon’s private-plated car on the A90 near the Abernyte junction just after midnight and found two cardboard boxes containing 18 plastic bags full of herbal matter.
The 17.96 kilos of cannabis would have been worth £63,000 wholesale or up to £179,610 in 1g deals, Forfar Sheriff Court heard.
Officers also found a knuckleduster in the car.
Gordon explained he was doing a favour for a man with a Brummie accent who had asked him to pick up the boxes in Glasgow and take them to his then-home in Hillside, near Montrose, where he was to wait for them to be collected.
He told officers the knuckleduster was used to train people in martial arts.
Gordon, now of Davidson Place in St Cyrus, was placed under supervision for a year and given 270 hours of unpaid work.
Caught on tape
A Perthshire businessman has been banned from contacting his wife for five years after secret recordings of his abusive behaviour were passed to police. Andrew Galbraith, 50, was caught on tape ranting at his partner, making derogatory remarks and violent threats over a period of more than a year.
Shoplift terror
A rampant shoplifter stole more than £2,300 worth of alcohol from Angus supermarkets in a month-long crime spree.
Brian Patterson later threatened to “carve up” a shopkeeper with a knife when he was confronted about his behaviour.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard staff members at various shops told police they were too scared to intervene when Patterson was seen stealing.
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael told the 21-year-old: “You have taken to shoplifting as if it’s your natural right to do this – well, it isn’t.
“Everybody has the right to work without being attacked or being in fear of attack.”
Patterson, now a Perth prisoner, pled guilty to 13 separate shoplifting charges from supermarkets in Arbroath, Carnoustie, Brechin, Montrose and Kirriemuir between August 10 and 28 2024.
The total value of the goods stolen was £2,375, of which the vast majority was alcohol.
He also admitted stealing a car on Arbroath’s West Abbey Street, abusive behaviour at Aldi in Montrose and a knife threat incident at Dundee’s Salvation Army hostel in April 2023.
On September 10 last year, Patterson was involved in a struggle with a shop worker at a Nisa store in Arbroath when he produced a blade and shouted: “Yous are getting carved up.”
Patterson was jailed for 24 months and made subject to a 10-month supervised release order.
Roof plunge
The boss of Angus Biofuels has been fined £10,000 after an employee plunged almost six metres through a roof. William Watson, 60, appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit breaching health and safety legislation, leaving his employee with “catastrophic injuries”.
Street attack
An NHS worker from Cupar has been sentenced after he left his victim unconscious in the street after a bar bust-up.
James Walker, 55, previously appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court to admit severely injuring and permanently impairing his victim in the assault on April 30 in 2023.
Walker and his victim got into an argument in the Imperial Bar and the first offender was ordered to leave the premises when the other man ended up on the floor.
When he left the bar too, Walker, of Dalgairn Crescent, attacked.
Walker repeatedly punched and kicked him on the head and body, knocking him unconscious.
He lay on the pavement for five-to-ten minutes before making his way home, where his partner contacted police.
At Ninewells, he was found to have sustained a fracture to his left eye socket and cheekbone and was referred to a specialist.
His vision was found to have deteriorated with his eye displaced by four millimetres and socket risen.
Sentencing had been deferred for Walker to meet with social workers.
His lawyer Gary Foulis said: “He’s minimum risk. He’s someone who’s contributed to society all his adult life.”
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown ordered Walker to complete 270 hours of unpaid work over the next two years, noting “although it would normally be a custodial sentence.”
Two decades of abuse
A man who abused multiple women over a period of 20 years at locations across Scotland, including at T in the Park at Kinross, has been jailed. A sheriff described Jamie McGough‘s near-two decades of conduct as the most sustained period of domestic abuse and violence he had ever seen.
Rapist breach
A convicted rapist has escaped further punishment for breaking a strict court order by staying at his then-girlfriend’s home without telling police.
Alan Radcliffe, who was jailed in 2014 for attacks on women in Perth and Stirlingshire, admitted the breach after police investigated domestic abuse allegations against him.
The 40-year-old went on trial at Perth Sheriff Court, accused of a course of abusive behaviour towards his ex between November 1 2022 and January 1 2023.
He was acquitted of the charge but pled guilty to failing to comply with terms of his sexual offences notification requirements.
Radcliffe admitted he had not told authorities that he had been staying at his then-partner’s home in Kinross for seven days or more.
Defence agent Steve Lafferty confirmed his client had never revealed his past conviction to the ex-girlfriend.
However, Sheriff Alison McKay noted a “glowing” pre-sentencing report.
She told Radcliffe she had considered imposing a three-month restriction of liberty order but she changed her mind and admonished him after learning he had complied with a bail curfew for two years before the trial.
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