News / Pottinger jailed for eight months
A YOUNG Shetland serial offender is back behind bars after admitting he intended to steal when he was found at a house in the island of Yell, in the early hours of Sunday 6 April.
Jason Pottinger, with an address in the same village at Meadowbank Road, Burravoe, committed the offence while on early release from a previous custodial sentence.
On Wednesday at Lerwick Sheriff Court, Sheriff Philip Mann jailed the 26 year old for 10 weeks for intending to commit theft, and ordered him to serve a further six months from his previous sentence.
The court heard that Pottinger was discovered because one of the residents was unable to find sleep that night.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said she noticed a vehicle approaching the house at around 1.30am.
It stopped, turned and drove back to the main road, but was back 45 minutes later when the woman heard the vehicle driving over the property’s cattle grid.
She saw Pottinger stopping on the driveway, turning off the lights and getting out of the car
She observed him using a torch to inspect the vehicles parked outside their house, and then turning his attention to a nearby garage and shed.
She woke her husband and then confronted the intruder by shouting at him.
Pottinger replied that it was “Jason” and that he was trying to find his way home after getting lost.
Pleading for leniency, defence solicitor Tommy Allan said his client was well aware that things did not look good for him.
He said Pottinger could not remember much of what happened that night due to his drug intake in the wake of losing a number of friends.
Allan said Pottinger was very anxious about his tenancy and also the job he had been able to hold down since he had been released early from a jail term.
Sheriff Philip Mann said he had no option but to send him back to jail.
However, he reduced the new prison term from 12 to 10 weeks due to the time Pottinger had already spent in custody.
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