A bumper round-up of Tayside and Fife car-related crime.
Dangerous driver
A dangerous driver has pled guilty to driving his car into oncoming traffic on A914, damaging three vehicles.
Martin Whyte was driving from Tarrant Mill to Cupar Road at excessive speeds on June 6, 2020.
Whyte caused chaos by driving into oncoming traffic, forcing other cars to swerve to avoid collision.
He dangerously drove his Volvo over the white line of the dual carriageway multiple times and overtook other vehicles.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Whyte’s actions caused one car to take evasive action, rebounding on to a white DAF truck.
Whyte, of Kinglassie, Lochgelly, was also driving without a licence or insurance.
The 28-year-old was warned of a possible jail sentence.
Sheriff Lorna Drummond said: “The charge of dangerous driving, causing damage to three cars, being a danger to other road users; such a serious offence deserves a serious sentence.”
She deferred sentence for the completion of social work reports.
Snapchat creep
A creep from Dundee has avoided prison for sending an intimate video of a woman to her friends and family on Snapchat. Jason O’Neil, 27, from Coupar Angus, filmed the footage at a Dundee hotel and sent it to contacts. he has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Drugs in car
Police found quantities of three Class A drugs in the car belonging to a Fife man, who was later jailed for being behind the wheel whilst disqualified.
Andrew Fair was previously sentenced to eight months behind bars for driving while disqualified on May 31 last year.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, 43-year-old Fair admitted to possessing heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.
Within the vehicle, which was stopped on Loch Leven Terrace in Kelty, police found 0.41g of impure diamorphine, 1.35g of cocaine and a quantity of ecstasy not below 0.52g.
With Fair, of Bowhouse Terrace in Cardenden, not present, Sheriff Richard McFarlane deferred sentencing until December 23 for him to be present.
Double rapist
Double rapist Darren Cameron will be sentenced next month. The Perth man was found guilty of raping two women at addresses in Dundee and Perthshire.
Brandy binge
A Polish recycling plant worker has been banned from the road after being caught driving through Perth the day after a brandy binge.
Police were tipped off anonymously that Jacek Ludwicki was driving into Perth while unfit to do so, from the Glenfarg area.
Officers had been called at around 12.30pm on November 20 and set up a static position on Perth’s Edinburgh road.
They clocked the 49-year-old’s Vauxhall Astra and followed it along Marshall Place and onto Scott Street.
When Ludwicki, of Foundry Lane in Perth, was pulled over, he failed a breath test by returning a reading of more than double the legal limit (52 mics).
While being conveyed to a police station, Ludwicki volunteered to police that he had not drunk that day but had consumed 350ml of brandy the night before.
He told officers: “It was my mistake. This should never have happened.”
Sheriff William Wood, at Perth Sheriff Court, disqualified him for a year and fined him £640.
Sentence remitted
Knife-wielding Mark Law, who terrorised staff members at a Dundee mental health facility faces being monitored for life after being branded a danger to the public. The 43-year-old threw the knife through a hatch at the Alloway Centre, where it lodged in a worker’s mousepad. He committed other crimes and a sheriff has remitted sentencing to the High Court.
Assault escape
A Perth man who drove drunk to “escape a man who assaulted him” in the city centre has been disqualified.
Johnathon Brown admitted driving with 79 mics of alcohol in his system on November 7, more than three times the legal limit of 22 mics.
Brown, 27, of Comely Bank, phoned police to report an alleged attack on Kinnoull Street shortly before midnight.
When police arrived at Kinnoull Street, they noticed a smell of alcohol and he told them he had last drunk alcohol around an hour before.
Personal trainer and Covid-19 test site worker Brown was fined £840 by Sheriff William Wood and was disqualified from driving for 18 months.
The sheriff said: “It’s a very high reading. You knew fine you had been drinking for most of the afternoon.”
In case you missed it…
Thursday round-up — Police in court special
Wednesday round-up — Crossing collision and Halloween horror
Tuesday round-up — Covid cougher and armed robbery
Monday round-up — Paying back £23k at £2.50 per month
Dundee teacher and martial arts coach wins compensation after classroom head injury
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
