An Inverness man has been jailed for eight months for stealing a car to go to a party in Easter Ross and assaulting two police officers after being arrested for the crime.
Ian Grant, of Rosehaugh Road, admitted the theft from outside a property on the city’s Dochfour Drive on September.
He then drove it to a party in Invergordon before returning to Inverness and abandoning it.
Police later tracked him down and Grant admitted resisting arrest, kicking a police officer in the leg and attempting to headbutt them while detained at Burnett Road police station.
He also admitted attempting to spit at another officer while being held at the station.
Sheriff David Stewart also fined Grant £200 and banned him from driving for a year after he admitted failing to provide a breath sample the following morning.
Yesterday Fiscal depute Stewart MacIver told Inverness Sheriff Court that the owner of the vehicle had left it parked outside an address in Dochfour Drive with the keys inside.
When the owner returned at about 10pm, they discovered the vehicle was missing and contacted the police.
Mr MacIver said: “Later, at about 11pm, there was a party taking place in Invergordon when one person there saw the accused arrive in the vehicle and noticed he was under the influence and that he stated he had just stolen the vehicle in Inverness. He left there some hours later.
“Police received information about the vehicle being driven in the Inverness area but were unable to stop it and later received information that the vehicle had been abandoned elsewhere in Inverness.”
Mr MacIver added that at about 4.30am the next morning, police arrested Grant and took him to the station, adding: “There, he attempted to headbutt one officer and spit at another. Some hours later, after things had calmed down, he was formally requested to provide a sample of breath and he basically refused to get out of his cell and co-operate with procedure.”
Sheriff Stewart said: “It genuinely gives the court no satisfaction to sentence someone like you to custody as you are on a returning pattern of offending – prison, release, offending, prison.
“You are going to waste a very substantial part of your life on that pointless journey and it’s only you that can change that. There is no point in the court assisting you until you are willing to take that help. You understand you will be regularly here and regularly sent back to prison.”
Grant’s sentence will be backdated to September 19, when he was first remanded in custody.