A robber who held up a Fife taxi driver days after appearing in court charged with thefts has been jailed for more than 1,000 days.
Matthew O’Brien appeared at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to be sentenced for the string of offending which took place over three weeks earlier this year.
The 33-year-old demanded cash and car keys from cabbie Ronnie Forsyth, repeatedly telling the driver he had a knife.
The career criminal had only been released on bail eight days earlier – in connection with a series of thefts from Sainsbury’s in Leven and sheds in Buckhaven.
Stealing spree
At an earlier hearing, O’Brien pled guilty to assaulting and robbing on-shift Mr Forsyth while he was parked on Methil‘s High Street on February 3.
O’Brien admitted he repeatedly demanded money and stated he had a knife while his hand was in a pocket.
He went on to feel Mr Forsyth’s jacket, seized his wallet and robbed him of £205 and the driver’s keys.
O’Brien, of Lawrence Court in Buckhaven, had only been released on bail by Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court on January 27.
That order was granted in respect of a string of thefts which O’Brien, 33, has now pled guilty to.
On January 15, he stole a £600 bicycle from a shed in Buckhaven’s Chapel Street – which has since been returned to its owner.
However, the tools he stole from a shed on nearby Victoria Road he forced open on January 23 remain untraced.
O’Brien also targeted Sainsbury’s in Leven on four occasions between January 15 and 23, stealing £999.50 worth of goods that were never recovered.
Criminal past
O’Brien attended a sentencing hearing via a video link from HMP Perth where he had been remanded.
Sheriff John MacRitchie sentenced him to one year and 265 days imprisonment for robbing the taxi driver, followed by eight months for the thefts in January.
Before that, O’Brien must serve 141 days of an unexpired sentence, equating to a total period of imprisonment of just over 1,000 days.
The sheriff noted O’Brien’s criminal record contained four previous convictions for assault and robbery, 39 thefts, three attempted or completed housebreakings and two more convictions for being found somewhere where it could be reasonably inferred he planned to steal.
Also on O’Brien’s record are three assaults, two cases of abusing shop workers, six occasions of threatening or abusive behaviour, one count of possessing a knife and a charge of obstructing police.
In 2018, he was jailed for 30 months for smashing his way into a Kirkcaldy petrol station and robbing the terrified female attendant.
The bungling crook masked his face and wore gloves but rolled up his sleeves, exposing his forearm – baring a tattoo reading “Matty”.
Jail sentence ‘inescapable’
The sheriff labelled the final incident an “appalling assault and robbery.”
He said: “This was a patently serious offence.
“In the summary case, there clearly is some degree of planning involved.
“These offences are very considerably aggravated by your solemn and summary previous convictions.
“If you totalled all the prison sentences imposed over the last 16 years or so, they’re approximately seven years, yet you continue to offend in this manner.
“The indictment offence is considerably aggravated by you being on bail, having offended similarly on bail on 48 previous occasions.
“These offences are not mitigated by any particular matters to any great extent.
“The inescapable conclusion is inevitably reached that nothing other than a significant custodial sentence is appropriate.”
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