A drunken man who vandalised nine cars, causing £600 worth of damage, was jailed for four months at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday.
Daniel Stewart, 22, of High Tweed Mill, King Street, Galashiels, had fallen out with his girlfriend over a mobile phone and had been drinking heavily prior to committing the offences in Galashiels on September 14/15.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond told Stewart his behaviour was wholly unacceptable and would not be tolerated.
Stewart admitted five charges of recklessly damaging vehicles in the town, and also stealing from another car.
He caused £120 damage after striking a car at Roxburgh Place, and £30 damage to a vehicle in Roxburgh Street. Stewart damaged another car in Roxburgh Street (£15) and caused £40 damage to one parked in Union Street.
He also ran up a total of £400 worth of damage after recklessly damaging five vehicles at Central Garage in Island Street, and stole compact discs and a purse, worth £80, from an insecure car at Torwoodlee Road.
Procurator fiscal Graham Fraser said police officers received a report about cars being damaged around the town centre.
“A number of vehicles had their wing mirrors kicked off and at Central Garage, where a large number of vehicles are parked outside, five were damaged,” explained Mr Fraser.
“Police were called to his girlfriend’s address as they had fallen out and some property, which had been taken from a car at Torwoodlee Road, was recovered,” said the prosecutor.
“He appears to have had an argument with his girlfriend, and had been drinking extremely heavily, and this offending was the result,” explained defence solicitor Matt Patrick, adding: “He accepts his actions were irrational and unnecessary.”
The solicitor said his client had observed a curfew since October. “He says he has not consumed alcohol since.”
Mr Patrick said Stewart was keen to reimburse the car owners for the damage he caused, but Sheriff Drummond observed that, at £10 a fortnight, this would take him over two years.
He told Stewart: “Your behaviour in the community has become wholly unacceptable, to the extent that I now have to deal with it by custody. In a drunken state, you vandalised nine cars and did £600 worth of damage.”
Stewart was also placed on an 18-month CRASBO (criminal antisocial behaviour order), prohibiting him from drunken and antisocial behaviour.
Co-accused Gregory Cranston, 18, of Glenfield Road East, Galashiels, admitted entering an insecure car at Windyknowe Road on the same dates and stealing a satellite navigation system and personal items worth £500.
Mr Fraser said there had been no recovery of the stolen goods.
Defence solicitor Greig McDonell said his client had been “fairly frank, saying he remembers very little about going into the vehicle and stealing from it”.
The solicitor went on: “He had been out drinking with his co-accused. He said that he doesn’t have the £500 worth of property and doesn’t know what happened to it.
“He knows that alcohol has played a part in his offending, and was in a drunken state when he committed this offence.”
Sheriff Drummond sentenced Cranston to a 12-month community payback order, with a condition he completes 120 hours of unpaid work. He also made a compensation order of £500.
“You are already on deferred sentence and you get yourself involved in this escapade, although the part that you played was significantly lower than that of your co-accused. If you want to take the same route as Mr Stewart, you are going the right way about it,” warned the sheriff.