News / Court round up for 15 December 2010
Jail for Holmes
A 30 YEAR old woman from Shetland was sent to jail for a total of nine months after pleading guilty to one case of theft by shoplifting, resetting stolen goods and breaching a probation order for a serious break in.
Rachael Holmes, of 9 Burgadale, Brae, appeared for sentencing before Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday afternoon.
Holmes had admitted at previous court hearings to stealing confectionary from the Co-op supermarket in Brae on 23 June, and resetting a stolen hooded top and hat at Lerwick’s Market Cross, on 4 November.
She also admitted being in breach of a probation order imposed for her role in the break in to the Mossbank shop, in March 2009.
The court hearbd that Holmes’ social inquiry report had not been very encouraging, and despite pleas from defence solicitor Tommy Allan not to send her to jail just before Christmas, sheriff Graeme Napier said she had been given plenty of opportunities to turn her life around.
Disqualification for Kukutis
A YOUNG Latvian man who had admitted driving in the Tesco car park while disqualified and almost four times over the legal limit narrowly escaped a jail sentence when he appeared from custody for sentencing before Lerwick Sheriff Court, on Wednesday.
Edgar Kukutis, of 159 Sandveien, Lerwick, had admitted three charges, all committed on 25 November, at an earlier court hearing.
Addressing the court, defence solicitor Tommy Allan said the offences were “serious”, only to be interrupted by sheriff Graeme Napier who described them as “very serious”.
However the sheriff accepted that having been in custody for almost six weeks, Kukutis had already served the equivalent of almost three months in prison.
“In these circumstances I can deal with this by an alternative to custody. But be under no illusion, if I see you in court again you will be sent to jail,” he warned the 21 year old.
Kukutis was told to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and was disqualified for five years.
More motoring offences
A LERWICK man was fined £500 and also banned for 18 months after admitting a case of dangerous driving at the town’s South Road and Scalloway road, on 22 June.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday how John Francis Smith, of 15 Lovers Loan, had failed to give way resulting in another driver being forced to make an emergency stop.
Smith then followed the other car so close that the front of his car could not be seen from the car driven ahead of him. When that driver pulled over, he executed what was described as a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre.
The court heard that Smith was known in the town for the standard of his driving.
Sheriff Graeme Napier gave the unemployed father three months to pay the fine. Failing that he was told that he would have to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work as part of a supervised attendance order.
Smith was also told that if he wanted his driving licence back he needed to pass an extended test of competence.
Sentence on a separate offence in which his car had left the road on 29 September and he failed to report the accident, was deferred until 23 March 2011.
Meanwhile, a former newspaper reporter was fined £700 and banned for 18 months when he appeared before court and admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Peter Johnson, of Broomhill, Reawick, was almost twice the legal limit when he was stopped by police officers on South Road, in Lerwick, in the early hours of 5 December.
The 48 year old was told that he could reduce the period of disqualification by four months should he successfully complete an alcohol rehabilitation course.
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