Friday court round-up — Wedding woes and bridge smash

A Vauxhall Corsa was written off after being crashed on the Tay Road Bridge by an unlicensed driver.

Jonathan Martin, 23, and two friends left the scene after the smash in the early hours of the morning on March 27.

Dundee Sheriff Court heard how they had left a house party to go and get cigarettes.

Prosecutor Larissa Milligan said staff in the control tower were alerted by a “loud bang”.

“One of the staff drove onto the bridge and observed a red Vauxhall Corsa manoeuvring and could hear the engine revving loudly.

“A male passenger exited the car and advised that his friend just crashed.

“They were advised that the police had been called and all three males exited the crashed vehicle, collected items from it and walked on the ramp towards Dundee city centre before being lost to sight.”

Construction worker Martin, of Lyndhurst Place, pled guilty to causing the crash by driving carelessly without a licence or insurance and failing to provide his details or report the incident.

Solicitor David Sinclair said: “It is a matter of relief that there was no significant injury caused but the information is that the damage to the car turned out to be irreparable.”

Martin was fined a total of £706 by Sheriff John Rafferty and had six points placed on his licence.

Caught on camera

A Fife man repeatedly licked his hands and put them down his trousers and exposed himself through a window to a woman in her home. Robert Hodge, 51, was caught on camera outside a property in Cowdenbeath on December 22 last year.

Arbroath siege

A teenager has admitted causing a siege in Arbroath when a dispute about noise complaints spiralled out of control.

Jack Mason appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court via a video link from remand in HMP Polmont to admit a string of charges.

At Anderson Street in Arbroath on October 28 this year, he culpably and recklessly repeatedly threw items from the window including metal pots, wooden sticks and glass bottles with “utter disregard for the consequences”.

He accepted his behaviour put people in danger, particularly a pair of neighbours who required to be evacuated.

Mason also pled guilty to threatening or abusive behaviour during the siege – acting aggressively, playing loud music and refusing to desist, repeatedly throwing items from the property, shouting and swearing, striking a glass pane causing damage and repeatedly striking the walls.

Mason made offensive remarks, threats of violence and said he was in possession of a lighter.

During the siege he breached bail conditions imposed the day forbidding contact with the neighbours.

Fiscal depute Charmaine Gilmartin said: “He’d moved shortly before the offence.

“There were no issues to begin with. There’s some disagreement about noise. It’s escalated to this.”

His solicitor Mark Robbins said: “He said mentally he was feeling particularly poor at the time. He realises he was taking it out on others.”

Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown deferred sentencing until December 12 for reports and further remanded Mason.

Fuel scam

Ex-soldier Brendan Scanlan operated an elaborate fuel card scam to cheat a Perthshire filling station out of thousands of pounds worth of diesel. The 31-year-old illegally used a company card to pay for associates’ fuel after they all filled up in the Bullionfield forecourt at the same time.

Wedding woes

A Fife project risk manager was caught drink driving while four times the limit after boozing at a wedding.

Adam Ward, who works for global technology group Siemens, was caught by police on the A92 Crossgates to Cowdenbeath road on October 20 this year.

The 36-year-old, of Windmill Road, Kirkcaldy, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to plead guilty to driving with excess alcohol (90 mics/22).

Defence lawyer Kris Buchanan said first offender Ward was attending a wedding with his partner and was the designated driver.

He had a beer in the afternoon and, after sitting down to dinner, there was wine on the table and his partner suggested they leave the car and get a taxi home later.

As the evening progressed he consumed alcohol but made the “ill-fated decision” to drive. He was caught at around 12.15am.

The lawyer said Ward is expecting a new job in the Dundee area shortly involving windfarms and off-road sites.

Sheriff Krista Johnston banned him from driving for a year and fined him £600.

The disqualification period will be cut by a quarter if he successfully completes the drink drivers rehabilitation course.

Puddle splash fury

A motorist who drove through a puddle and splashed a group of workmen was hunted down and punched in the face. The driver, who left several building site workers soaked in muddy water, was left needing to visit hospital after being hit by furious Sean Cargill.

Pretended to be cop

A man who claimed to be an off-duty police officer and made a homophobic remark to a Perth bar worker has been fined.

Drunken Robert Kennedy lost the plot when he was refused service at the Old Ship Inn on June 14 this year.

The 52-year-old told an employee he had just finished a long shift at the prison and was an off-duty cop, fiscal depute Sam Craib said.

However Kennedy told the court he had not meant to imply he was a police officer but had inadvertently caused confusion by trying to show the staff member his “urgency” card to get emergency access to toilet facilities.

He called the employee a “f***ing b****” and a “f***ing lesbian.”

Solicitor Jamie Baxter, defending, said his client had had three pints of Guinness and wine during dinner and was “embarrassed about the comments he made.”

Kennedy, of Frances Gordon Road, Perth, pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and uttering a homophobic remark.

Sheriff Clair McLachlan fined him £467 and told him: “You are right to be embarrassed.”

App threat

A “high-risk” self-confessed paedophile from Dundee who sent an underage girl a string of lewd images on social media is facing a prison sentence. Raheel Bajwa, 20, told the girl she would be raped as he bombarded her with images and videos on apps like TikTok and Snapchat for more than a year.

Sex offender registration

A Kirkcaldy man has been placed on the sex offenders register for five years after admitting possessing indecent images of children.

Gary Sala had the images between March 2022 and October 2023.

The 61-year-old, of Harris Drive Kirkcaldy, was also sentenced to a three-year supervision order and to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work.

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