Nwicker60
06-Mar-13, 15:52
Trolley dash by train went of the rails
A SHOPPER wheeled a trolley load of groceries out of a Wick superstore....trouble was, he hadn’t paid for them.
By the time the law caught up with Jonathon Russell, he had made his getaway on a train back home to Brora with his ill-gotten gains - only to discover that the police were waiting for him.
Russell, 30, admitted stealing goods worth £557 from the Wick branch of the Co-op. He was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid community service.
Wick Sheriff Court heard today that Russell was observed leaving the store, on December 17, with the heavily-laden trolley which had not been processed at the check-out.
The police were contacted and discovered that the accused was on the southbound train with“multiple bags of groceries”,
Russell was arrested when the train pulled into Brora station at 6pm, the same day. He was interviewed but, commented David Barclay, prosecuting: “Officers gained nothing of any substance from it.”
Mr Barclay added that all the groceries were recovered.
Russell has a record and is reaching the end of a community service order, imposed at Inverness, previously.
Solicitor Neil Wilson said that a background report had identified Russell, of 2 Faskally Cottages, Brora, as having a drink problem and indicated that alcohol had been“an element” in the theft.
Sheriff Andrew Berry, however, questioned whether drink had played "any part" in the theft which involved travelling north to Wick on a train and stealing £577 worth of goods and returning south “fairly quickly” back to Brora.
The sheriff who noted that the accused had previous convictions for offences in Glasgow, Dunbarton, Inverness and Perth and “now Wick” said he would be entitled to pass a jail sentence.
At that point, Sheriff Berry broke off to caution two women sitting together behind the dock, one of whom was Russell’s partner, Corinna Ness, who was originally charged as a co-accused with him but had her plea of not guilty accepted, by the fiscal.
The sheriff warned: “If the two who are smirking think the proceedings are funny, they will very soon be disabused of that”.
Ness, 30, was listed as having the same address when she appeared with him, originally, last month.
A SHOPPER wheeled a trolley load of groceries out of a Wick superstore....trouble was, he hadn’t paid for them.
By the time the law caught up with Jonathon Russell, he had made his getaway on a train back home to Brora with his ill-gotten gains - only to discover that the police were waiting for him.
Russell, 30, admitted stealing goods worth £557 from the Wick branch of the Co-op. He was ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid community service.
Wick Sheriff Court heard today that Russell was observed leaving the store, on December 17, with the heavily-laden trolley which had not been processed at the check-out.
The police were contacted and discovered that the accused was on the southbound train with“multiple bags of groceries”,
Russell was arrested when the train pulled into Brora station at 6pm, the same day. He was interviewed but, commented David Barclay, prosecuting: “Officers gained nothing of any substance from it.”
Mr Barclay added that all the groceries were recovered.
Russell has a record and is reaching the end of a community service order, imposed at Inverness, previously.
Solicitor Neil Wilson said that a background report had identified Russell, of 2 Faskally Cottages, Brora, as having a drink problem and indicated that alcohol had been“an element” in the theft.
Sheriff Andrew Berry, however, questioned whether drink had played "any part" in the theft which involved travelling north to Wick on a train and stealing £577 worth of goods and returning south “fairly quickly” back to Brora.
The sheriff who noted that the accused had previous convictions for offences in Glasgow, Dunbarton, Inverness and Perth and “now Wick” said he would be entitled to pass a jail sentence.
At that point, Sheriff Berry broke off to caution two women sitting together behind the dock, one of whom was Russell’s partner, Corinna Ness, who was originally charged as a co-accused with him but had her plea of not guilty accepted, by the fiscal.
The sheriff warned: “If the two who are smirking think the proceedings are funny, they will very soon be disabused of that”.
Ness, 30, was listed as having the same address when she appeared with him, originally, last month.