Our reporters have been sitting in courtrooms across the north and north-east this week and covered a wide variety of cases.
Victim of racist abuse gets £250
A mum who filmed herself racially abusing a shop assistant and threatened to post the video on Facebook has paid £250 in compensation to her victim.
Lauren Tough flew into a rage when told to leave Amyes Grocery and Off-licence on Great Northern Road because she had been banned.
The 21-year-old launched into a verbal racist attack on the female shop worker, telling her she had “no right” to be in Scotland and should “go back” to her own country.
There’s NOT been a murder
A Ross-shire man who admitted wasting police time after falsely claiming to have murdered someone in woodland has avoided a prison sentence.
A major search was launched involving police and Coastguard teams after Donald Macleod lied about stabbing a man to death in Blackmuir Wood, Strathpeffer.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that the 54-year-old rang police on April 6 2021 to confess to the imaginary crime and even gave details of what he’d done to the man.
He told officers that the man’s body could be found in a pond.
Five-times the limit on visit to mother-in-law
A drink-driver was caught more than five times the legal booze limit – while visiting his mother-in-law on New Year’s Day.
Leigh Hull’s car was spotted crawling along the A836 near Bettyhill, arousing the suspicion of police officers.
He was stopped and taken to Wick police station where he was breathalysed and shown to be more than five times the legal drink-drive limit.
Hull, 33, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of drink-driving.
Suitcase of drugs
A “good-natured family man” has been jailed after he was caught with more than £7,000 worth of cocaine in a suitcase.
London man Emmanuel Ike, 46, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after police discovered his DNA on a bag of cocaine.
He was snared by police when they raided a flat in Headland Court in Aberdeen and discovered a suitcase full of drugs.
The case contained three packages of cocaine with an estimated street value of £7,640.
Man threatened to batter pal with baseball bat
A man threatened to “batter” his friend with a metal baseball bat when he started dating his ex-girlfriend.
Jordan Argo, 23, flew into a rage after he saw his friend and his former partner walking together in Aberdeen.
He then followed the couple to a nearby house on Powis Place and threatened to “rip” the man’s head off.
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Man tried to bite cop
An Inverness man refused to provide a urine sample to cops who suspected him of drink-driving – and even tried to bite one.
Marcin Sitarz, 42, of Tomnahurich Street, Inverness, pled guilty at Inverness Sheriff Court to failing to identify the driver of a vehicle, resisting arrest, failing to provide a specimen of urine without reasonable excuse and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The court heard that officers questioned Sitarz at his home on December 21 2020 but he refused to confirm he was the driver and attempted to leave the property through a patio door.
‘I have Covid!’
A woman bit the arm of a police officer before coughing and shouting “I have Covid!”
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard how Emma Barron, 43, attempted to flee from officers at a property on Hillview Cresent in the Aberdeenshire town of Rosehearty before sinking her teeth into a police officer’s arm.
While in custody, Barron then began to cough at cops in an exaggerated way before announcing: “I have Covid!”
She then kicked a police officer and made a racist comment.
Ex-boyfriend terrorised woman
A jilted boyfriend “terrified” his ex by calling her up to 20 times a day after she broke off their relationship, a court has heard.
Slawomir Pioch, 34, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted persistently contacting his former partner and telling her on several occasions that he would “make her life hell”.
The building supervisor also made numerous threats, harassed the woman and followed her to the supermarket between November 1 2020 and February 5 last year.
Police warned Pioch to stay away from the woman but he continued harassing her for months.
New Year unwanted visitor
A former soldier has avoided prison after he sneaked into his former partner’s home and assaulted her on New Year’s Day.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Neil Stephen, an ex-squaddie who served in Afghanistan, slipped into the home of his ex-girlfriend to “apologise” but became angry and repeatedly punched her in the face.
It resulted in the terrified woman fleeing the property in Inverbervie in the middle of the night and screaming for help from neighbours.
Footballer accused of betting scam
Elgin City’s Kane Hester scored his team’s goals on the same day a court heard he plotted with friends to carry out a betting scam worth nearly £14,000.
Hester scored both goals in Elgin City’s 2-0 win just hours after being accused of conspiring to con an online bookmaker out of £13,583.
Hester put in a man-of-the-match performance against Kelty Hearts in the League Two clash after his case was continued in his absence at Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday.
Prisoner’s improvised sleeping bag
A chilly prisoner who unpicked the stitching of his police cell mattress and climbed inside to keep warm has appeared in court.
Benjamin Drummond, who was just wearing shorts, ruined the mattress in the process and has now been fined for his actions.
The 49-year-old appeared via videolink from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted a single charge of wilfully or recklessly destroying property this week.
IT consultant assaulted boys
An IT consultant has admitted assaulting two Aberdeen schoolboys who he claims were “harassing” him outside his home.
Amr Hamed, 31, told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that he attacked the two boys when his frustration “boiled over” due to the students targeting his flat with antisocial behaviour.
Hamed, a software consultant and PHD student, said he had complained to both the police and the school about the teenagers – who he claims were throwing cigarette butts on his doorstep, smoking cannabis and repeatedly buzzing his doorbell.
He punched one 15-year-old boy in the head and kneed another teenager to the face.
Tyre sabotage
A drunken Fyvie man sabotaged a car after being “egged on by his friend” – causing the tyre to deflate and then crash into a wall.
Matthew O’Neill was caught on CCTV in broad daylight cutting the valve off the car’s rear passenger-side tyre in Turriff.
Its unsuspecting owner later drove more than 10 miles from Turriff to Auchterless unaware of the damage and that he was driving on a completely flat tyre.
Drink-driving teen fled crash scene
A teenager who wanted to join his pals for drinks in Aberdeenshire fled the scene after he crashed his car while drink-driving without a licence.
Connor Anderson’s car hit a fence in Banff town centre after he decided he wanted to drive to Turriff in order to socialise with friends.
But rather than stick around to deal with the consequences the 19-year-old – who was more than double the drink-drive limit – ran away, leaving his car abandoned on the town’s High Street.
Racist teen will face no further penalty
A racist teen who told a Chilean man to “go back to your own country” has been told he will face no further penalty for the offence.
Theo De Geus, 19, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted hurling racist slurs at Gabriel Ogalde-Gallardo and branding him as “curry-munching”.
De Geus also told Mr Ogalde-Gallardo to go back to Pakistan, despite being born in Chile and having lived in Aberdeen for nearly 15 years.
A ‘simply bizarre’ excuse
A man who was found with nearly £1,000 worth of cocaine in his pockets was just “holding it” for a relative, a court has heard.
Neilson Harris appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted being in possession of almost 50 wraps of the Class A drug.
The drugs were discovered when he was taken into custody by police and they searched him.
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Rapist filmed attack on mobile phone
A rapist filmed his attack on an Aberdeen woman and told her: “If you fight back, you will make it worse for you.”
Landscape gardener Peter Renton preyed on his two victims between April 2019 and June 2021 at addresses in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Musselburgh.
He now faces a lengthy jail term after he appeared today at the High Court in Glasgow and pleaded guilty to three assault and rape charges.
Prosecutor David Dickson told how Renton, 39, met the first victim in mid-2018.
Aberdeen tea firm faces legal fight
A Scottish judge has allowed hundreds of Kenyan tea plantation workers to sue the Aberdeen firm which employs them, after claims they suffered injuries at work.
The “historic” ruling at the Court of Session in Edinburgh paved the way for a multi-million-pound court action against James Finlay (Kenya) Ltd which is registered in the Granite City.
More than 700 claimants, represented by Thompsons Solicitors, have accused Finlays of expecting them to operate under “working conditions that can be described without exaggeration as modern-day slavery.”
Royal Mail boss stole letters
An Aberdeen Royal Mail boss has admitted stealing hundreds of customers’ cash-filled letters for almost four years – and blamed the stresses of work for his crimes.
Steven Dalgarno, a manager at the Kittybrewster Sorting Office, said he “couldn’t cope” with meeting targets and so binned letters and took the cash rather than send them out for delivery.
When police searched the 35-year-old’s home they found a stash of opened letters as well as thousands of pounds worth of euros and other foreign currency in his loft.
Car dealership targeted
A man has been ordered to carry out unpaid work after admitting causing more than £30,000 of damage to vehicles at a Fraserburgh dealership.
Roberto Tudora poured a corrosive liquid over 13 vehicles at Murray Motors on March 23 last year.
The value of the damage was initially alleged to be as much as £100,000, but prosecutors accepted a plea involving a reduced cost of £33,000.
Man pulled knife on pensioner
A pensioner underwent a terrifying ordeal when she returned from a shopping trip to find a man in her home brandishing a knife.
Andrew Bain, 24, broke into the house in Kemnay and was disturbed by the 71-year-old homeowner as she brought in groceries from her car.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Bain immediately put the knife to the woman’s face – but then had a change of heart and ran off shouting “I’m sorry!”
Mummy, there’s a woman outside who wants to kill you
A family’s breakfast was disturbed when a child informed her parents that there was a woman outside with a hammer who wanted to kill mum.
Christina Stewart, 56, turned up at the home in Dingwall and shouted for the family to “come out” or she would “come in”.
She told her victims, members of her own family with whom she had fallen out, that they should leave the Ross-shire town and threatened to ‘cut’ them if they did not.
Inept criminal bares all
A criminal who stole a minibus to drive home from prison and was caught because he left his release papers on the front seat has been branded “inept”.
Gerard Graham had been freed from HMP Grampian for no more than 20 minutes when he stole the taxi from a petrol station in Peterhead.
He abandoned the vehicle 30 miles away in Aberdeen but left the crucial clue to his identity behind.
And it wasn’t the end of the 30-year-old’s ineptitude.
Drink-driver blames peer pressure
A drink-driver was caught more than four times the legal alcohol limit – after bowing to “peer pressure” to drink during a Scotland match.
Callum McDonald had been due to deliver a vehicle as part of his job working for a car retailer, but was persuaded to join pals to watch a Scotland match in a bar.
The 26-year-old ended up giving in to “considerable peer pressure” and drinking during the World Cup qualifier against Moldova on November 12, which Scotland won 2-0.
Sick thief targeted dead woman’s home
A serial thief broke into a dead woman’s house and went through her jewellery boxes before leaving bloodied fingerprints on the family’s sympathy cards.
Prolific housebreaker Robert Merchant had only been free from prison for a few weeks when he targeted two homes in Aberdeen, one of which lay empty following the recent death of its owner.
The 62-year-old repeat offender rummaged through the late lady’s jewellery boxes and even opened and rifled through the sympathy cards posted to the house for her family to read.
He was traced after police matched blood left on a kitchen worktop there to his DNA.
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