A man who crashed his mobility scooter into a four-year-old child in the city centre has been jailed.
Eric Stewart struggled into the dock at Dundee Sheriff Court with one crutch to be sentenced after pleading guilty at an earlier trial.
The 39-year-old caused havoc on Murraygate on August 10 last year.
Stewart, of the Lily Walker Centre, Ann Street, was charged with driving a mobility scooter while unfit through drink or drugs.
He was also charged with driving it without due care or attention and colliding with a child pedestrian, then aged four.
The child was not seriously injured in the incident, but did receive treatment to her arm, which was found to be badly bruised.
He was further charged with failing to provide a urine sample at Bell Street Police Station.
He admitted the first two charges, while the crown accepted a plea of not guilty to failing to provide a sample.
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Sheriff John Rafferty was horrified at the charges and Stewart’s background report.
He said: “There are so many problems here, and it is a horrendous offence anyway which merits going to jail on its own.
“But this is a particularly bad and disturbing background report and you can only get so many chances.
“I gave him a chance to see if he could deal with drug treatment.”
Stewart’s solicitor Carolyn Leckie blamed his failure to meet the conditions imposed on him on his mobility being drastically reduced and that there was a dispute over a risk of a methadone overdose.
She said: “He quite rightly doesn’t have access to a mobility scooter and he relies on his support worker. He does have multiple health problems.”
However, Sheriff Rafferty dismissed the pleas to confine him to the Lily Walker Centre on a curfew.
Before sentencing Stewart to nine months in prison and disqualifying him from holding a driving licence for three years, Sheriff Rafferty said: “I gave you every opportunity.
“This is a terrible case in the first instance and I tried to see if anything could be done in respect of your drug abuse and you failed to comply.
“It’s a dreadful report and it is clear a custodial sentence is the only way to deal with this matter.
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