A benefits cheat has been ordered to pay back more than £6,000 to which he was not entitled.
Ian Black, 66, had originally pled guilty at Perth Sheriff Court to unlawfully claiming more than £12,000 between November 10 2015 and January 31 2022.
After being allowed to instruct a lawyer – having originally represented himself – he withdrew his original plea and submitted an alternate guilty admission for the lower sum.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC ordered Black, of Ballantine Place, Perth, to pay back £6,400 and placed him on a 12-month restriction of liberty order.
‘Loved it’
A Perth woman kicked two police officers below the belt during a violent, drunken struggle. Isabella McPhee, 44, told arresting officers “she loved it” after screaming homophobic remarks at them in an incident on Crieff Road.
Found 500 miles away
A Kent paedophile travelled to Dundee and bought a mobile phone, in defiance of a sexual harm order.
Andrew Scoffield, 51, left his home in Maidstone, Kent and was found holed up in Travelodge on Strathmore Avenue, 500 miles away.
He had purchased a mobile phone without telling his supervising officer – a clear breach of the sexual harm prevention order placed on him by an English court.
He had left a note for his wife telling her he was leaving and she contacted police.
Scoffield – deemed a medium-risk offender – had also been given a suspended 12-month sentence after being convicted of engaging in sexual communications with a child.
Defence solicitor Anika Jethwa, in mitigation, said: “He has got a job now.
“He has registered with police in Dundee.
“He left a note for his wife – she told police he had left.
“He tells me he tried to send an email to his supervising officer, but they never got it.
“He accepts he should have contacted police.
“He is in a new relationship and has accommodation in Dundee.”
Scoffield, of Court Street, Dundee, admitted purchasing a mobile phone and failing to notify police he had changed address between February 7 and 9 2023.
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown deferred sentence until December 7 for background reports.
Benefit Dundee
A violent career criminal who has committed more than 120 offences has been placed under supervision after a sheriff said his freedom could “benefit Dundee”. Alan Rachwal was told he was being given a chance after committing several crimes while under supervision.
Abused police after self-reporting
A Dunfermline woman who assaulted and made appalling comments to police officers has been jailed.
Michelle Bruce, 26 pled guilty to repeatedly kicking one constable on the body and spitting on him and another constable, at the city’s Bleachfield Court on July 4 this year.
She also admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and repeatedly making offensive remarks and threats of violence to officers and spitting in a police cell.
Her verbal abuse was aggravated by prejudice relating to disability and sexual orientation and was racially aggravated.
Prosecutor Brogan Moffat told the court it was about 12:20am when Bruce herself contacted police to report she had pushed someone.
When two officers arrived she told them she had been drinking heavily and ran off, then turned to say “come on, then” when they stopped her.
While being escorted off the road she lashed out and kicked one officer to his upper left leg and spat on his body.
She kicked him again in the shin after being arrested.
At Kirkcaldy police station she told another officer to “go back to Dunfermline, you lesbian b***ard,” that “she looks like a d*ke” and would “punch her c**t in”.
Ms Moffat said Bruce then claimed she would “get away with it and play the system and get the charges dropped”.
Bruce referred to the officer she had earlier kicked as a “f***ing m**go” and alleged he had raped her.
She told another officer he was a “p*ki b***ard” and to “f**k off”.
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said Bruce, of Bleachfield Court, was unhappy in supported accommodation and issues with her and carers were the background to the case.
“She had consumed far too much alcohol and behaved in the manner as described.”
Sheriff Neil Bowie told Bruce said: “I accept you have shown genuine remorse and indicated a wish to take responsibility and that’s to your credit…so the sentenced is substantially lower.
Bruce was sentenced to a total of 186 days in prison.
Murder trial
A neighbour of alleged murder victim Ean Coutts watched a workman loading his wheelie bin into a parked car and joked to his wife he hoped Mr Coutts was not inside. Kevin O’Donoghue told police he looked out a window of his Kinglassie home to see a tradesman “struggling” to get the grey waste paper bin into the back of a Volkswagen Golf. David Barnes, 33, is on trial accused of murder.
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