What a start to the week in the courts.
House of Horrors ball
The co-director of the House of Horrors charity ball at the University of St Andrews has been accused of embezzling almost £6,000.
Amy Fisken allegedly committed the offence while acting as co-director of the charity ball between January 1, 2019 and January 1 this year.
The 25-year-old faces a single charge of embezzling £5,737.77 at the university and elsewhere.
Fisken, of Carlton Street, Edinburgh, was not present when the case called at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Her case was continued without plea until January by Sheriff Gregor Murray.
Pervert’s ‘fumbling’ claim
Victor Don, who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in a Dundee flat, claimed his attack was similar to “a fumbling teenager on a first date”. The 53-year-old will be sentenced next month after indecently touching the child when they had been left alone. He is now on the Sex Offenders Register.
Parent council embezzlement claim
A parent council board member accused of pocketing more than £2,400 while acting as co-chairperson had her case continued at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Amanda Donnelly, 41, is charged with embezzling the money while co-chairperson of Victoria Park Primary School’s parent council board.
Prosecutors allege Donnelly embezzled £2,402.81 from the school on Dundee’s Blackness Road on various occasions between March 15, 2019 and June 21 this year.
Donnelly, of Leith Gardens, was not present when the case against her called.
Sheriff Gregor Murray continued the case without plea until January.
RNLI compensation
A group of Extinction Rebellion protesters who occupied an oil rig in the Port of Dundee have been ordered to pay compensation to the RNLI. The seven-strong gang sparked a full-scale emergency response in January 2020 when they clambered aboard the rig in dreadful weather, with some scaling its legs, high above ground level.
‘This knife makes me feel like a man’
A Dundee brute subjected his partner to constant mental abuse and threats of violence and brandished a knife at her.
John Hunter, of Elders Court, pled guilty to charges of abusive behaviour, from early April 2019 until January 2020 at Dunholm Road.
Hunter, 47 appeared in Dundee Sheriff Court, which heard how, on January 1, 2020 the couple got into an argument over Hunter keeping a knife in his shoe.
Fiscal depute Duncan Mackenzie said: “The accused said: ‘This knife makes me feel like a man; you don’t make me feel like a man’.”
The next night, Hunter pulled out the knife and threatened to end his own life.
On January 3, the woman broke up with Hunter before leaving for work, asking him to leave behind his key.
When she returned to her home later that day, she found a Samsung tablet, charger and perfume had been stolen.
She reported this to police, as well as how Hunter mentally abuse her by calling her “all the names under the sun”.
Sheriff Paul Brown deferred sentencing until March for the completion of social work reports.
“You have crossed the threshold of a prison sentence,” he said.
Charity manager jailed
Former charity shop manager Peter Martini-Yates was jailed for assaulting a customer and communicating indecently with another man. The Dunfermline man was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for a decade.
DIY fraud
A man has admitted fraudulently returning products he “bought” at a Fife B&Q store, before pinching a toolbox.
Gordon Bees pled guilty to defrauding the DIY retailer out of a £136 credit note on March 7 when he was at the Dunfermline branch.
Bees, 34, lied to a staff member as he tried to return goods without a receipt and was able to defraud the Carnegie Drive Retail Park store out of the in-store credit before he then stole a tool chest from the store.
Bees, of Woodburn Avenue in Dalkeith and not present at Dunfermline Sheriff Court but pled guilty to theft and fraud.
The court heard Bees is a serving prisoner with a current earliest date of release of June 2022.
Sheriff James MacDonald deferred sentencing until January 12 for a social work report.
In case you missed it…
Friday round-up — Prison cell gel hell
Thursday round-up — Micro-phone and cannabis bust
Wednesday round-up — ‘I don’t drink and drive’
Tuesday round-up — Headbutts and benefit cuts
Passenger injured after banned driver crashed lorry into ditch in Fife on Christmas Eve
The full caseload of the Dundee Crime and Courts Team can be found here.
