A man has admitted breaking into Aberlour Post Office and stealing cigarettes in a Sunday afternoon drunken raid.
Scott Ironside, 23, appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court after admitting the theft and a further charge of resisting arrest.
Ironside raided the Post Office, on Aberlour’s High Street at around 3.30pm on December 17 last year.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court that neighbouring properties had heard a “loud smashing” and the shop alarm sounding.
“Witnesses observed the glass had been smashed,” Ms Poke went on. “And a male running away in possession of cigarettes.”
Aberdeen man carried out daylight raid at Aberlour Post Office
Police carried out house-to-house enquiries and looked at available CCTV footage, the court heard, and later found Ironside at his brother’s house nearby.
“They found him asleep on a sofa,” Ms Poke said. “And noted there were open packets of cigarettes on the table – and he had fresh cuts on his hands.”
Ironside was taken to hospital to be assessed, and “freely stated” that he had broken into the shop and stolen cigarettes.
The court heard the value of the tobacco products totalled £72.45 and the damage to the door was £600.
Ironside also appeared on an earlier matter of resisting arrest in 2021, when police had been called to a property on Hepworth Lane in Forres.
‘He called the police scum bags’
A concerned member of the public had phoned at around 12.20am to say Ironside was within the address with a “slashed face”, and he was threatening to harm himself.
“He appeared to be intoxicated with alcohol,” Ms Poke said. “He told the officers to f*** off and refused any medical treatment.
“He called the police scum bags and was subsequently warned about his behaviour.
“However, this did not sway him, and he proceeded to call them paedos, mongos, f*****s and little pansies.”
Ironside’s defence agent said his client had been remanded in December following the Aberlour incident and had spent 33 days in custody.
He told the court Ironside had been in foster care since the age of three and social worker on his case had been “valiant” in trying to support him and he was now trying not to drink to excess.
Shock to the system
Sheriff David Hardie asked Ironside if the spell in custody had been a “shock to the system” and he replied: “Yes.”
He sentenced Ironside, of Bedford Road, Aberdeen, to 80 hours unpaid work for the post office break-in and ordered him to pay compensation of £120.
For resisting arrest, he deferred sentence for good behaviour and warned: “If you do not comply with the order, you will be going back to prison – this is a direct alternative to custody.”
