Court / Man fined after police assaults and cell urination

A LERWICK man who attacked two police officers and urinated in his police cell after a Christmas do has been fined and ordered to pay the cleaning costs.

Denniss Bolbocanu, who is originally from Latvia but now lives in Robertson Crescent, also admitted abusing the police officers with homophobic terms on 14 December 2025.

Bolbocanu, 26, remembered nothing of the attacks and awoke confused in a custody cell in the early hours of the morning, Lerwick Sheriff Court heard.

The fishing processing worker had been out on a Christmas night out with his colleagues when he became aggressive towards staff in the Marlex in the early hours of the morning.

Police were called and “tried to reason with him”, but Bolbocanu began shouting and swearing at them, and refused to give them his name.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the “inevitable result” was that he was arrested, at which point he began directing homophobic insults towards them.

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Bolbocanu could not be taken out of the van at Lerwick police station because he was so aggressive, and when he did he then spat onto a police sergeant.

A spit hood was applied, but in the station he continued to deliver angry homophobic remarks to the officers.

After struggling violently with officers he had to be taken to the ground, and when it seemed like he had calmed down he kicked a police constable in the chest.

He was taken to the cell in straps to stop him from assaulting anyone else.

But then Bolbocanu urinated on the wall of the cell, resulting in a cleaning charge of £150.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said Bolbocanu had never been in trouble before, and was not used to drinking.

He said his client was given a shot “he thought was vodka”, but could not remember anything after he drank it.

Bolbocanu had not had a drink since the incident, Allan added, and wanted to apologise to the police officers involved for his behaviour.

Sheriff Philip Mann said he hoped this was not the start of more criminal behaviour from Bolbocanu, telling him he would “land yourself in serious trouble”.

He fined Bolbocanu £600 and ordered him to pay the £150 cleaning charge.