A violent offender who shouted abuse at prison staff has been ordered to perform unpaid work.
Andrew Neave was serving a sentence at HMP Perth when he behaved abusively during an incident on February 22 2023.
He had been due to stand trial at Dundee Sheriff Court accused of injuring fellow inmate Charles McGregor on the same date but this was dropped by prosecutors.
The 30-year-old was ordered to perform 90 hours of unpaid work by Sheriff Paul Ralph after Neave admitted shouting and making violent threats to prison staff.
Neave, of Traill Terrace in Montrose, was sentenced to 28 months in custody in 2021 after leaving a pub-goer lying in a pool of blood in the Angus town.
Security guard death trial
A woman will stand trial accused of the culpable homicide of a security guard at an Asda in Arbroath. Natasha Smith, 37, allegedly assaulted former Royal Marine Alun Harris-Richards at the store in Westway Retail Park on June 30 2024.
‘Slumped’ in car
A flight attendant found slumped over the steering wheel of his Mercedes in Fife while nearly seven times the drink-drive limit has been fined £600 and banned from driving for 18 months.
Andrew Meenan’s offending took place on the B922 road, Cluny, and elsewhere on February 5 this year.
The 36-year-old appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to being in charge of a car with excess alcohol (152mics/22).
Prosecutor Lauren Pennycook told the court previously police on mobile patrol spotted Meenan’s stationary car at the side of the B922 road at its junction with Strathore Road, shortly before midnight.
They found the driver “slumped over the steering wheel”, the fiscal said.
Sheriff Mark Allan described the alcohol in breath reading as “horrific”.
Defence lawyer Alexandra Philp said Meenan, of Haig Avenue, Kirkcaldy, was drinking heavily at home alone after being sober for some weeks prior.
She said her client did a detox programme but this offending was a relapse.
Cocaine shame
A driver was over the cocaine limit when she crashed into a central reservation on the M90 in Fife. Laura Fieldsend, 43, was travelling south on the motorway, nar the Halbeath junction, when she came to a stop facing the wrong direction last year.
Buckfast robbery prison plea
Knife-wielding William Vanbeck, 46, robbed a Kirkcaldy shop worker of a bottle of Buckfast.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, via video link to prison, he pled guilty to assaulting and robbing the man at Malkhas convenience store in Birnam Road on September 5 2024.
He admitted having a knife in public without reasonable excuse or lawful authority.
Prosecutor Sarah Smith told the court Vanbeck entered the shop shortly before 2pm and a member of staff there recognised him.
Vanbeck picked up a bottle of Buckfast, walked to the counter and presented a knife to the worker and said of the bottle: “I need this.”
Defence lawyer Elizabeth Dryburgh said her client struggles significantly in the community and is “motivated by the desire to return to custody”.
Referring to a psychiatric report, she said Vanbeck had worked most of his adult life but suffered a stroke five years ago which led to a “significant deterioration” in his mental wellbeing.
He has had alcohol dependency most of his adult life, exacerbated by loss of employment, but is able to abstain in custody.
Sheriff Krista Johnston said it seemed a “revolving door” of increasingly lengthy prison terms and called for a further background report into post-sentence supervision and support in the community.
Vanbeck’s sentence was deferred until May 7 at Dunfermline Sheriff Court and he was remanded in custody meantime.
Snared by hunters
Perth paedophile Connor Mackay believed he was asking a “12-year-old girl” to perform degrading acts in sickening social media chats. However, the 30-year-old was actually being snared by volunteers at two separate paedophile hunting groups.
Turning life around
A court has heard how a man jailed for abducting and stabbing someone in Dundee has tried to turn his life around after being released from prison.
Lennon Bruce, 22, was locked up for two years in January 2024 after he and Craig Topen, 46, were found guilty of kidnapping Alexander Edgar in August 2021.
Their violent actions were described as being akin to a scene from a Quentin Tarantino film.
Mr Edgar was bundled into a van in broad daylight before beating and stabbing him over an unpaid debt.
Two months later, he was ordered to pay £2,000 to a boy who was 15 when he had his jaw shattered in a vicious attack.
Bruce returned to Dundee Sheriff Court this week to be sentenced for assaulting and robbing another man of an electric scooter in the Charleston area in April 2022.
It was revealed he sent his victim multiple Facebook messages after returning the scooter two hours later.
Solicitor Jim Laverty said: “This was three years ago and he was sentenced to a period in custody, which appears to have changed his life.
“He used his time productively and gained a number of qualifications relating to the hospitality industry.
“He has the offer of paid employment. Things are certainly moving forward for this young man.”
Sheriff Paul Ralph ordered Bruce to be supervised by the social work department for nine months.
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