A Dundee benefit cheat who conned the DWP out of a five-figure sum by failing to tell them she worked full time has been sentenced.
Heather Jamieson, 54, lied between November 2011 and June 2018 by knowingly failing to disclose on forms relating to income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit that within the last year, she had worked full time at Hudson Pitkerro Care Centre.
This helped her obtain sums of £9,728.58 and £8,413.47 to which she was not entitled.
Sheriff Paul Brown placed Jamieson, of Napier Drive in Dundee, under supervision for two years.
Jamieson was also made subject to a 7pm to 7am restriction of liberty order for a year.
Sparks from sparky
An electrician from Fife who threatened to sabotage a job and “wreck” a company boss after getting the sack has narrowly avoided prison. William Ferguson, 28, told the electrical firm director he would cut every wire on the job he had been working on as he bombarded him with phone calls and texts.
‘My heart was going there’
A Perth prisoner has been acquitted by a jury of having two bespoke weapons behind bars.
Hugh Mullen, 39, went on trial at Perth Sheriff Court accused of having a “sharp metal object made from broken scissors” and “a sock containing a heavy object tied within” at HMP Perth on November 4 2020.
After two days of evidence, jurors found both charges not proven amid doubts over who the items belonged to.
Mullen, previously jailed for his role in a brutal assault on his cousin, thanked jurors and gave them the thumbs up.
“My heart was going there,” he said as he was led out of the dock.
Caught red-handed
Perth police disrupted a £50,000 heroin operation following a probe into county lines dealer Steven Dougan. The 32-year-old was caught red-handed with a bag of heroin and a wad of cash while parked in the city.
Smelly firebug
A smelly firebug who torched a toilet in Ninewells Hospital has been jailed.
Jurors previously convicted Sam Burns Hall of fire-raising at the Dundee hospital and he has been sentenced to four years and three months, with a two year extended sentence.
Hall, 49, of Leith Walk, Dundee, started a fire at the hospital, which he has routinely targeted and forced part to be evacuated by firefighters.
He told jurors he was at the hospital to have a meal in a cafe and staff reported him as smelling strongly of smoke because he did not often wash.
Kirton chaos trio accused
Three people arrested in connection with the Halloween chaos in Kirkton have been released pending further inquiries.
A 16-year-old male, a 15-year-old male and a 28-year-old woman were due to appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on Friday, police announced.
Legal rules mean they cannot be publicly named.
All three were liberated by the fiscal’s office to as further investigations continue.
All three are due to appear at the court at a later date.
Cannabis sharer
A Dunfermline man caught with thousands of pounds worth of cannabis in his partner’s car, which he was driving while uninsured, has been told to carry out unpaid work.
Aaron Barrett, 25, of Bitten Court, pled guilty at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to possessing 420g of herbal cannabis – worth about £4,200 – with intent to supply it.
Barrett also admitted using a car without insurance.
Procurator fiscal depute Michael Robertson police who stopped the car for the insurance matter discovered more than 60 individual bags of cannabis.
Defence lawyer Kirsty Watson said Barrett had been smoking cannabis himself and kept the drugs in his car as he was living with his father at the time.
She stressed he would only share the drug with his partner and friends.
The lawyer said he also disputed the value of the drugs and believed them to be worth around £2,000.
Sheriff Alison McKay told Barrett: “While I fully accept it’s a class B drug, it does involve you having a large quantity of drug in your possession with intent to supplying it to another.
“I understand from you that effectively amounts to sharing but it’s not what the law says in relation to the supply of drugs to others”.
The sheriff placed Barrett on offender supervision for a year and told him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, as a direct alternative to custody.
He was admonished for the driving offence.
Bogus workman strikes again
A sick thief who stole thousands of pounds from an 83-year-old dementia sufferer in Glenrothes has been jailed. Bogus workman Matthew Morrison, 33, also sneaked through a window into a 91-year-old woman’s home and stole £930 in cash and a necklace. He was already on a bail order to stop his offending.
St Andrews shop flasher
A Fife flasher who exposed himself to women in two St Andrews shops must pay them £400 each in compensation.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Darren Tetlow of Hilton View in Lumphinnans, exposed his private parts to women in Market Street on August 19 last year.
Sheriff Paul Brown chose not to place Tetlow, 43, on the Sex Offenders Register.
