A teenager who mugged an Elgin drug dealer has been warned that his young age would soon fail to protect him from a custodial sentence.
Masked Jordan Carnegie, 19, assaulted the man at knifepoint in an Elgin lane and robbed him of his mobile phone – but was caught because his victim recognised his voice.
At an earlier hearing, fiscal depute Alison Young told the court that Carnegie had agreed to meet the man at TK Maxx at 5pm on February 5 this year but phoned him to say he couldn’t make it.
Then the dealer, who had a bag of cannabis to sell, got another call from an unknown number to meet a buyer in Thunderton Place.
Ms Young said: “He was approached by a man with his hood up and wearing a ski mask so only his eyes were showing and he pulled out a knife, saying ‘give me the bag.’
“[The man] recognised the voice as Jordan Carnegie. Carnegie was pushed away but [the complainer] dropped his mobile phone, which was worth £50, and Jordan Carnegie ran off with it. It was never recovered.”
Sheriff’s warning
Defending, Robert Cruickshank appealed to Sheriff Gary Aitken not to send his client to detention, despite his record.
Last year, Carnegie was ordered to pay an Elgin pubgoer £1,000 compensation after he battered the man’s head repeatedly off the ground and left him so badly injured he had to receive surgery for a fractured and dislocated hip.
Mr Cruickshank said Carnegie had successfully completed an earlier community payback order and added: “Justice could be served by another order as the maximum hours are available to the court.”
Sheriff Aitken imposed 200 hours of unpaid work plus placed Carnegie on two years of social work supervision.
But he warned the teenager: “You have a very short record but it is getting more and more significant and you are getting older.
“The amount of time Mr Cruickshank can use your youth to keep you out of jail is rapidly disappearing.”