Court / Jail for man who carried out targeted campaign of threats, burglaries and abuse
A FORTY four year old who repeatedly targeted a Virkie man with abuse, burglaries and threats has been jailed for over two years.
Stuart Duncan, whose address was given as Grampian Prison, admitted stealing £600 worth of goods during a break-in to the man’s Toab property on 22 November last year.
He had also set aside a further £3,450 worth of items to steal before he was stopped by a vigilant neighbour.
While out on bail, Duncan breached his bail conditions by repeatedly trying to call and text the man whose house he had targeted during the break-in, including leaving him threatening messages.
And less than two months after the first offence, Duncan broke into a separate garage in the area and caused more than £5,000 worth of damage to a car locked in there.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald said Duncan’s obsession with targeting the man – whom he had previously been friends with – was “very concerning”.
Duncan had been convicted previously of using the man’s debit card fraudulently and of threatening him, Lerwick Sheriff Court heard today (Wednesday).
The complainer left the property to stay with his girlfriend in the West Mainland when Duncan targeted it last November.
Neighbours heard banging coming from inside the property and, knowing that the complainer was not there, one of them went to see what was happening.
The court heard that they found Duncan had broken in through the door and when asked why he was there, he gave a “somewhat gargled explanation” about doing something with the heating.
Duncan left the property immediately and the neighbour found that a “significant amount of items had been moved”, with Duncan’s rucksack still there.
TVs, speakers, chargers and DVD players were among the items moved, along with a “number of car parts”, which had been placed inside a suitcase.
A speaker and a “significant quantity of frozen meat” were missing, totalling £600 overall.
Duncan was arrested and released on bail on 18 December under the condition he did not contact the complainer.
However on 30 December, the man received a call from a number he did not recognise and, when he called it back, Duncan answered.
That came just 30 minutes after Duncan had been told by police not to contact the complainer, the court heard.
Duncan then sent the man a series of “thoroughly abusive” text messages, including one that stated: “I will go to jail for you”.
The complainer had a car kept in a separate garage in Virkie, the court was told, and on 16 January Duncan then targeted the vehicle.
A walker passing by heard an “extremely suspicious” noise from within the garage and went to get a neighbour to investigate.
When they did they could see broken glass and a broken window, with Duncan inside with “blood running down his hand”.
They contacted the police and asked Duncan for his name, but he provided a false one.
However the person decided to take a photo of Duncan, which procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said was a “good quality” image of the accused.
When they told Duncan he needed to stay there because the police had been called, he punched more of the glass out of the window to try to escape, with shards of glass falling on the head of one of the neighbours.
They sustained a “number of minor injuries”, the court was told.
There was “significant damage” caused to the car by the broken glass, and an ignition key that had been stored inside the glove box had also been stolen.
Mackenzie said there was £1,140 of damage to the car, £4,300 of damage to the paintwork and the cost of replacing the stolen key was £800 – totalling over £6,000 worth of loss.
He called for a non-harassment order to be imposed due to Duncan’s repeated targeting of the complainer.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said Duncan understood he was going to be sent to prison and had no issues with a non-harassment order being imposed.
He said Duncan had been struggling with alcohol badly at the time of the offending, and believed “going to jail had probably saved his life”.
The 44-year-old wanted to go to rehab and to be able to “draw a line” under his offending, Allan added.
Sheriff MacDonald said Duncan’s record was “not a particularly nice” one, and that his targeting of the complainer was “very concerning”.
Duncan had been subject to community payback orders for previous offending, but the sheriff decided to revoke those orders and impose a jail sentence of 13 months.
With regards to Duncan’s offending in November, December and January, she sentenced Duncan to a further 18 months imprisonment.
She said the two sentences were to run consecutively and were backdated to 20 January, when he was put into custody.
Duncan was also ordered not to approach or contact the complainer, or to attempt to approach or contact him, for 10 years.
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