A Kirkcaldy thief made off with almost £900 worth of cigarette from a town centre convenience store.
Ryan Brown was seen fleeing the McColl’s store on the High Street on April 11 last year.
Staff at a nearby casino alerted police.
When officers arrived, they found the door to the shop smashed in and packets of cigarettes strewn across the floor.
Brown, of Alison Street, admitted, breaking in and stealing cigarettes and tobacco and was ordered to complete 70 hours of unpaid work.
Solicitor Martin Maguire said the proceeds from the sale of the cigarettes were intended to fund his client’s drug addiction.
Valium trance
An army veteran who terrorised a Perth family in their home while armed with a replica handgun has been jailed. Allan Steele, 50, was in a Valium “trance” when he tried to force his way into the strangers’ property demanding money and drugs.
SIM number 1
A jailed armed robber was caught with an illicit SIM card at Perth Prison for a second time.
Harry Tant appeared at the city’s sheriff court and admitted having the unauthorised communications device on January 28 last year.
The 31-year-old is serving a four-and-a-half year sentence for holding up two Edinburgh shop workers with a hammer and a knife.
His jail time was extended earlier this year, after he admitted having a SIM card on December 3.
The court heard the second device was found during a routine cell search.
Sheriff Mungo Bovey jailed Tant for three months to run concurrently with his current sentence, meaning his earliest release date of June 2025 will not be affected.
SIM number 2
Perth prisoner Gary Thoms was caught using an illegal SIM card after a member of the public reported him phoning his girlfriend from his cell.
Guards descended on his room in A-Hall after the call on Halloween morning 2021.
The 40-year-old appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted the offence.
Solicitor Scott Norrie said Thoms had been handed the illegal SIM card by his cellmate after running out of minutes on his prison-issued phone.
Thoms was sentenced to 160 days.
SIM number 3
Former inmate William Mason admitted having an illegal SIM at the jail on November 16, 2021 – just days after he was jailed for endangering the lives of six police officers by dragging them across a Perth car park.
Buckfast-fuelled Mason drove over a stinger and smashed into a police car at the end of a tense stand-off outside his home in Strathtay Road.
The 39-year-old, of Abbotshall Avenue, Glasgow, was caught with the SIM card during a routine search, fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton said.
Sentence was deferred until September 6.
Police probationer assault
A police probationer sexually assaulted a woman during a function at the Scottish Police College in Tulliallan, a court has heard. Jack Cooper was pushed away by his victim after he seized and handled her bottom on a dance floor at the police training centre near Kincardine in June last year. He has since resigned.
Bad move
A Kirkcaldy shop manager caused police to perform an emergency stop in a careless attempted overtake.
Mohammed Samad, 21, of Balsusney Road, pled guilty to driving carelessly on Kinghorn Road on August 29 last year.
He admitted crossing double white lines and attempting to overtake when it was unsafe, causing other road users to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
Procurator fiscal depute Michael Robertson told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court an unmarked police car was travelling east on the 50mph road and approaching the bow of a hill when Samad’s Mercedes van was heading west on the wrong side of the road.
He said: “The officer had to perform an emergency stop and pull the vehicle to the left hand side to avoid a collision”.
Police turned their car around and turned on their blue lights and signalled the van to stop.
Samad’s defence lawyer said his client was driving behind a vehicle travelling at 20-to-30mph and, at the time he began the manoeuvre, saw the lines were broken before it changed to solid white lines.
The solicitor said his client went back on to his side of the road when he realised it was not safe to overtake.
The lawyer said it was a “momentary lapse of judgement”.
The solicitor said first offender Samad works in the family business running four Day Today shops in the Fife area.
He drives the work van to the cash-and-carry and transports goods between shops.
Sheriff Robert More fined Samad £400 and his driving licence was endorsed with four penalty points.
Cupboard-hiding bail breacher
A Dundee man warned by a court not to go near his partner, accidentally answered the intercom in her flat to police then hid behind coats in a cupboard. William Ferguson, 47, pretended not to be there after answering the buzzer during his illegal visit.
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