A 27-year-old Mearns man who got hungry and went to pick up a takeaway in an uninsured truck has been spared jail.
Scott Merchant, of Gourdon Small Holdings, Laurencekirk, admitted driving without insurance on March 30 on various roads in Brechin.
He further admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice the following day by pretending to police that his vehicle had been stolen.
Depute fiscal Jill Drummond told Forfar Sheriff Court officers on patrol highlighted concerns over the way the Mitsubishi L200 Warrior was being driven.
They followed for a short distance but couldn’t keep up with the vehicle to see who was driving.
The truck turned a corner where police eventually found it parked up and unattended.
There were no signs of the driver. The car was unlocked and documents relating to Merchant were found on the back seat.
A check was carried out and it was found the car did not have insurance.
The following day Merchant called police control in Aberdeen to report the vehicle stolen.
He said it had been stolen from outside his address. He claimed he was working on the vehicle until 9.30pm then left it unlocked and went to bed.
Merchant said he woke up at 9am and found the vehicle was missing. Officers pointed out the seriousness of making a false claim. However, Merchant went ahead with the false report.
CCTV was reviewed which showed Merchant with the vehicle and officers spoke to him again. He admitted he was the driver.
Defence agent Robin Beattie said: “He is 27 and works as a builder.
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“He has never been out of work since leaving school.
“The vehicle was not insured and he knew it wasn’t insured.
“His own car was broken so he drove his van – he offers no excuses for his behaviour.
“The reason being is he was hungry – he went to get a takeaway.
“He drove to Brechin to get food.”
Mr Beattie admitted the second charge was the most serious.
“It was stupidity on the part of Mr Merchant and he apologises for it,” he said.
Sheriff Gregor Murray said Merchant attempted to pervert the course of justice “by some distance”.
“This led to considerable work being carried out by the police to find out what was blindingly obvious in the first place – which was that you were the driver,” he said.
He said it was a serious offence which could have resulted in a jail sentence.
However, he decided to instead impose six penalty points and order Merchant to carry out a community payback order.
Merchant must carry out 120 hours of unpaid work in one year.
Sheriff Murray said the hours imposed highlighted the seriousness of the offence.
