A Dundee man recently convicted of attempted murder has admitted tormenting staff at the accident and emergency department of Ninewells Hospital on November 13 2024.
In May, HMP Perth prisoner Steven Clarke was convicted by a jury at the High Court in Dundee of slicing David West’s throat and repeatedly striking him in January 2023.
Mr West suffered a 10cm wound to his neck after being slashed with a blade attached to a multi-tool.
Judge Lord Renucci sentenced 42-year-old Clarke at the High Court in Edinburgh to nine years in prison earlier this month.
During the Ninewells incident, Clarke acted abusively towards staff, struggled with them and kicked bins.
He went on to assault a healthcare assistant by punching her on the body.
Sheriff Gregor Murray imposed a nine-month prison term to run alongside his sentence for the attempted murder.
Indecent images
A Fife paedophile has admitted downloading footage of children as young as one being sexually abused. Luke Ramage, 20, from Lochgelly, pled guilty to downloading indecent images and videos of children over an 18-month period.
Road rage machete
A road rage motorist who waved a machete at rivals as he pulled alongside their car has been placed on a year-long community payback order with supervision.
James McGregor, 36, clashed with Gary Quinn as they both pulled off a roundabout and tried to merge from two lanes on the outskirts of the city.
The rival drivers pulled into a petrol station and exchanged angry words and eventually, the incident escalated to the extent McGregor lowered his window and pulled out a machete, which he waved around in a menacing manner.
Sheriff David Hall told McGregor at Perth Sheriff Court: “It is perhaps fortunate it didn’t get any more serious than it got.”
McGregor, from Perth, admitted acting in a threatening or abusive manner by accelerating past another car as lanes merged on Auld Bond Road on October 9 2022.
He admitted braking sharply, acting aggressively and possessing and brandishing a machete.
Fiscal depute Katie Stewart said: “Gary Quinn was driving at Inveralmond roundabout and exited towards Perth city centre. It is a two-lane road which goes to one lane.
“He was unhappy with he accused’s manner of driving and followed him to the petrol station and stopped next to the accused’s car.
“They started arguing from their vehicles with open windows.”
McGregor drove off, followed by Mr Quinn, then turned at a small roundabout.
Ms Stewart said: “They both stopped their cars. Mr Quinn got out and approached the accused. The accused remained in his vehicle with his window open.
“Mr Quinn suddenly observed the accused holding a machete, around 30cm in length with a hooked end. The accused started to wave it in an intimidating manner.
“Mr Quinn was two or three metres from the car when the accused was waving the blade.
“The accused then drove away to Perth city centre. The machete was never recovered.”
Tea-blagger jailed
A Perthshire businessman has been jailed for an elaborate £550,000 fake Scottish tea scam.
Thomas Robinson claimed to have produced the Queen’s favourite brew at Scotland’s first commercial tea plantation in the hills of Amulree, south of Aberfeldy.
He made up awards and qualifications to help land sales with luxury hotels and genuine Scottish growers throughout the country.
His teas were sold to the Dorchester, the Balmoral and Fortnum and Mason.
In reality, the plants Robinson claimed were grown at his Perthshire home had been bought wholesale from a supplier in northern Italy.
Other crops were purchased from UK vendors to decorate a 0.3 acre “kitchen garden” at his farm, ahead of visits from potential buyers.
Padlocks and shoelaces
A convicted fraudster has admitted a brutal assault on a fellow inmate at HMP Perth that left him scarred for life.
Thanh Nguyen used an improvised weapon made up of padlocks and shoelaces to attack Jack Turek in April last year.
Court papers state the 48-year-old repeatedly struck him on the head and body to his injury and permanent disfigurement.
The weapon is described as a padlock – or quantity of padlocks – tied together with shoelaces.
Nguyen was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court in 2023 for a bizarre driving tests scam.
He agreed to take driving theory tests by pretending to be other men, in exchange for cash and clothes.
The court heard how he had been recruited into the fraudulent scheme after fleeing loan sharks who had trafficked him to the UK from Vietnam to work on a drugs farm.
The Liverpool Echo reported he tried to sit tests in the Merseyside city, as well as in London, Doncaster and Carlisle.
DVLA staff became suspicious he was not the same person in the photograph on the provisional licence he presented them.
Perth Sheriff Court heard Nguyen, who has no previous convictions for violence, is now out of prison and at an address in Glasgow while his asylum claim is being processed.
Sheriff Clair McLachlan deferred sentence for background reports.
Firestarter
A vengeful firestarter claimed he torched a car on a Dundee street because someone had stolen from his grandmother. Kieran Hughes used a jerrycan of fuel to start the dramatic blaze on Pitkerro Road in September 2024.
Bail breach
A Glenrothes man was breaching curfew when he was found walking at the side of a busy dual carriageway after deciding to go and visit a family member in hospital.
William Dick was subject to a bail curfew when he decided to trek the eight miles from his home on Claymore Drive to the Victoria Hospital on June 21.
He was picked up by police in the early hours of the morning on the A92 between the Bankhead and Redhouse roundabouts.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court the 39-year-old admitted breaching his bail and was fined £150.
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