A luggage thief who pilfered a suitcase from a train as it passed through Angus will be sentenced next month.
Craig Simpson was not present when his solicitor pled guilty to the theft on his behalf.
32-year-old Simpson, of Castle Street in Montrose, stole the suitcase and its contents at his home town’s railway station on October 19 last year.
Lawyer Nick Markowski said his client had a “significant” record and “significant” drug addiction issues.
He will be sentenced at Forfar Sheriff Court on May 30.
Acquitted – by a nose
A man accused of vandalising multiple parked cars in Perth city centre has been acquitted after Perth police picked the wrong nose. David Irvine, 37, was charged with removing wing mirrors from vehicles in the city centre. Surprising focus fell on this prominent nose during the ensuing trial.
It’ll no’ happen again
A convicted armed robber will spend more time behind bars after he was caught with an illegal SIM card for the third time at HMP Perth.
Harry Tant, 31, appeared at the city’s sheriff court and pled guilty to having the unauthorised card in prison on December 3 last year.
Representing himself, Tant repled: “I can’t really say anything but it’ll no’ happen again.”
He was jailed for a further 23 weeks.
In 2017, Tant was jailed for four years and four months after he pulled on a motorcycle helmet and held up two Edinburgh shop workers with a hammer and a knife.
Gambling with the law
A Perthshire man kicked-off outside a Dundee casino and assaulted police. Neil McDowall, 23, appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court for his festive folly.
£1000 drive-thru trip
A drink-drive suspect pulled off part of breathalyser machine as police tried to test him following reports of erratic driving at a McDonalds drive-thru in Perth.
An ambulance crew alerted police after they spotted Craig Menzies, 32, from Auchterarder, knocking down traffic cones in his Audi A3 as he headed to the fast-food diner on Dunkeld Road at 2.30am.
At Perth Sheriff Court, he admitted refusing to give two breath specimens to police on April 1.
Police found Menzies sitting in his car, outside the nearby Asda just before 3am and taken to Police HQ in Dundee.
Fiscal depute Sam Craibb said: “He was initially willing to provide two samples of breath but he failed on five separate occasions.
“He appeared to stop blowing, when he was told to continue.
“And at one point, he pulled the plastic tube off with his lips.
“He said he didn’t understand what he was being asked to do.”
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “He regrets this very much.
“There had been a recent ending of a relationship and he had gone for something to eat after drinking to excess.”
Sheriff Mungo Bovey fined Menzies, of Glenburn Road, £1,000 and banned him from driving for a year.
Stole from dead man’s home
Heroin addict Thomas Currie, 52, stole jewellery as he raided the vacant home of a man who had died just three days earlier. He had worked as a gardener for the man, who lived on the same street as him in Ballingry, Fife.
Slipper slapper
A 19-year-old appeared in court for assaulting her boyfriend with a slipper.
Tamara Nicolson pled guilty to repeatedly striking George Stewart on the body at a property in Dunfermline’s Broomhead Drive on January 21 this year.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard Nicolson’s partner threw an air freshener at her – striking and cutting her head – “in a bid to scare her off” during the domestically-aggravated assault but no action appeared to have been taken against him.
Procurator fiscal depute Amy Robertson said the pair had been drinking alcohol when Nicolson appeared to get angry about a comment made by her partner of three years.
She took off her slipper and began hitting him, following as he left the room, where he hit her back with the air freshener tin.
Police were contacted and they found Nicolson within a bedroom “clearly upset and with an injury to her head”.
The fiscal said care home worker Nicolson, of Restalrig Drive in Edinburgh, had a small cut and that neither she or Mr Stewart required medical attention.
Asked by Sheriff Charles Macnair whether any action was taken against Mr Stewart, the fiscal said she could not see that any had been.
Defence lawyer Peter Winning said the initial comment made by Mr Stewart to his client was “very inappropriate”, adding: “While the libel says ‘shoe’ it’s a matter of agreement this was a slipper”.
Sheriff Macnair said: “Having regard to the nature of the offence which is at the lower end of domestic assault – albeit all domestic assaults are serious – there does appear to have been some provocation… I’m just prepared in the very particular circumstances to grant absolute discharge”.
Mule jailed
A drugs mule caught trafficking thousands of pounds worth of crack cocaine through Tayside has been jailed for more than four years. Gerald Duffus was caught with bags of the class A drug in the boot when pulled over by police on the A90, near Inchture.
Rumour wrecker
A man caused £1,800 worth of damage when he trashed a woman’s house in William Philips Drive, Montrose to address rumours being spread about him.
Fionen Lewis, 36, smashed the woman’s TV and sunbed on June 29 last year, Forfar Sheriff Court heard.
He refused to leave and started to kick “any property in his reach” and knock pictures from the wall.
Lewis, of Newmanswalls Avenue in Montrose , previously admitted acting in a threatening or abusive manner and wilfully damaging the woman’s property.
Solicitor Doug McConnell said: “He had a problem with alcohol during this time.
“Certain rumours were spread about Mr Lewis that were not great.
“He stupidly decided this was a good way of trying to stop these rumours.”
Sheriff Mark Thorley deferred sentencing until October 19.
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