An Aberdeen man reported his mobile stolen to police – then warned them he was going to murder the person who stole it and rob a bank.
Raymond Sanders made a series of furious calls after becoming unsatisfied with the police’s response to his missing phone.
The 45-year-old’s behaviour on November 7 was branded “utterly disgraceful” by a sheriff.
Fiscal depute Jennifer Pritchard told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Sanders initially reported his mobile phone stolen the day before.
Arrangements were made for an officer to call Sanders on his landline later that day but attempts to contact him proved unsuccessful.
At 9am the next day Sanders called the police to query why no one had called.
Ms Pritchard said: “During that call, the accused made threats to kill the male who had stolen his mobile phone, however, he retracted that and said it was made out of frustration.”
However, Sanders went on to make more threats to harm the man and “use weapons”.
At 12.22pm he contacted police again and, when advised he would be put on hold, swore and said he would call 999.
‘You’re still Micky Mousing me about’
That call was terminated and, in a further call, Sanders continued to behave in an “aggressive manner”.
In yet another call at 3.11pm, Sanders was described as “hostile”, telling the service adviser to look at her computer because he had been “hassling Police Scotland since Thursday”.
He added: “You’re still Micky Mousing me about. Come back to me otherwise there will be a murder on your hands.
“This is a joke, min. You are a farce of a mockery.”
Sanders made a further call to police at 7.55pm and said: “I’m away to do a bank robbery. You’re going to be arresting me for murder. I’m going to walk up to his house and I’m going to kill him.”
At 9.06pm Sanders made a final call to police in which he again threatened to kill the man and also to harm himself.”
‘If there’s any repeat custody will be nearly inevitable’
Officers subsequently attended at his address.
Sanders, of Cattofield Place, Aberdeen, pled guilty to making a number of phone calls to police that were grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.
Defence agent Tony Burgess described the offences as “the ramblings of a drunk with mental health issues”.
He said the comments in the last phone call were indicative of Sanders’ mental state at the time, and said this was “exacerbated by his inability to control his use of alcohol”.
Sheriff William Summers told Sanders: “Your behaviour on November 7 was utterly disgraceful. You made six calls to police and during these calls made a number of threatening remarks and a number of threats.
“It’s of significance that you have directly analogous previous convictions.
“If there’s any repeat of this behaviour and you appear before me custody will be nearly inevitable.”
The sheriff ordered him to complete 160 hours of unpaid work.
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