A 26-year-old father of 14 kids has been jailed for failing to carry out his community service, claiming he could only do light duties.
The sentence was imposed for violent offences and when it came to doing his unpaid work, lazy Lee Anderson was rarely on the job.
He claimed shovelling sand was too arduous and gave him a sore back but never produced any medical evidence to prove this.
He was brought back court for breaching orders imposed for offences dating back almost five years.
Following his repeatedly failure to complete the work, the patience of a sheriff finally ran out and Anderson was jailed.
Anderson, of Keir Street, Cowdenbeath, had his order revoked and replaced with a four month prison term.
Sheriff Craig McSherry was unimpressed by Anderson’s lifestyle saying, “He’s 26 and he claims to have fathered 14 children. I don’t suppose he pays anything to them?”.
“I think he only sees one of them,” replied defence solicitor Elaine Buist.
She said her client had recently started working but only on a day-to-day basis.
He had been given another extension in the time allowed to complete the unpaid work order in September.
“He’s done a limited amount of work since,” said Ms Buist.
However, she said he could not continue to carry out the work given to him because it involved shovelling sand and caused him back and shoulder problems.
“He’s willing and able to carry out the unpaid work as long as it’s light duties. He has no experience of custody and would want to avoid that occurring,” added the solicitor.
The sheriff pointed out that no medical certificates were ever produced by Anderson to prove he could not do the work.
The sheriff told Anderson community payback orders were introduced by the Scottish Parliament “aimed at keeping people out of prison if possible by giving them the opportunity to comply.”
He added, “You have completely failed to comply.”
The sheriff revoked the order and imposed a four-month prison sentence.
The community payback orders were imposed for offences committed when Anderson was living in Orkney.
On 29th December 2012, at his home in Berstane Road, Kirkwall, he caused a disturbance by shouting and swearing, throwing a chair and punching a television and a light switch.
He then assaulted a man by seizing him by the neck and resisted arrest.
In August 2011, he assaulted a woman at the same address and held a knife to her body.