News / Drunkenly smashing up kitchen costs chef dearly
GETTING drunk and smashing up the kitchen of the digs he was living in has ended up costing a hotel chef the best part of £1,000.
Marek Juras, 40, of Sygnet Street, York, had been living and working in Shetland for around eight months before drunkenly losing his cool at The Manse on Lerwick’s South Road on 31 August this year.
To make matters worse, having admitted causing hundreds of pounds-worth of damage to the kitchen, he failed to appear at Lerwick Sheriff Court for sentencing the following day.
Instead he left the islands on the NorthLink boat and ended up finding work in Yorkshire.
Juras pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing, and acting in an aggressive manner, going on to wilfully or recklessly damage property and throw items of furniture at the walls and to the floor.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Juras had attended a leaving do for a work colleague within his accommodation. He had far too much to drink and decided to smash up the kitchen “in a particularly aggressive manner”, causing an estimated £500-worth of damage.
Sentence was initially deferred for one day to see whether Juras had lost his job. When he was unable to persuade his employer to keep him on, he was effectively rendered homeless.
Juras turned up at the fiscal’s office and was directed to the council’s housing department, but instead decided to board the ferry to Aberdeen.
When he arrived there he did attend the city’s sheriff court to see if his case could be dealt with there.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said Juras was a single man but had two children, aged 13 and 9, to support back in his native Czech Republic.
Having found work in York, he was arrested last Thursday when returning to the UK having gone home for his mother’s birthday.
Honorary sheriff Willie Shannon fined him £250 for damaging the property, ordered him to pay £500 compensation and handed him an additional £150 fine for failing to attend court.
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