Man avoids jail after crashing grandpa’s car
AMAN who crashed his grandpa’s car into a cemetery wall after taking it without consent has avoided jail. William Dickson, of Duke Street, appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court to be sentenced over three charges.
On May 24, last year, the 21-year-old took his grandpa’s car without permission, drove it without insurance, and left the scene of an accident.
The procurator fiscal said: “The accused attended at his grandparent’s house at around 1pm where he remained throughout the day.
“He was observed to leave at 12am by the concierge. He got into his grandfather’s car and drove it away.
“A short time later at around 1am, a witness within her home address heard loud noises outside her house.
“She looked outside and observed the vehicle crashing into a stone cemetery wall, causing damage to the wall and the vehicle.
“It remained stationary before driving off.
“The witness contacted police and passed over the details. Thereafter, the
vehicle was observed a short distance away with no-one in it.
“Police carried out checks and attended at the registered keeper’s address. They spoke with the accused’s grandparents.
“DNA taken from the vehicle identified the accused. He was cautioned and charged the following day.”
The court heard that Dickson also stole a watch from an
unsecured vehicle and then failed to attend at court on August 12, last year.
The procurator fiscal added: “At 2am, the witness was within her home address. She heard sounds of someone walking along the gravel outside her house.
“She looked out and saw the accused and the co-accused passing through her garden. She contacted police who attended minutes later. The accused was observed hiding within a bush.
“He was asked to exit the bush. When he did so, a watch was found in the area he was standing.
“The watch was dry, and the surrounding grass was wet. Door-to-door inquiries were carried out in the morning. An unsecured vehicle had appeared to be ransacked and the £200 watch belonged to the owner of the vehicle.”
Dickson’s lawyer said his client accepted full responsibility by pleading guilty.
He added: “He was abusing Valium at the time. He came out of prison and thereafter lost his way again.
“He is ashamed and disgusted with himself. He caused his family real problems, but they have taken him back in.
“He has not been of any other offending and has opportunity of employment.
“Perhaps the court could step back from a custodial sentence and impose a community-based punishment instead.”
The sheriff ordered Dickson to be under social work supervision for 12 months, to have a tag installed that requires him to be within his home address from 8pm-7am for 80 days and be disqualified from driving for eight months.
APENSIONER’S two-year battle with a power company over a broken radiator timer has come to an end after the Glasgow Times stepped in to help.
Margaret McLetchie, 87, has been facing monthly bills of up to £160 since April 2019 after relatives realised the timing clock on her electric storage heaters was slow. Storage heaters are supposed to come on at offpeak times, storing heat and then releasing it throughout the day, which is intended to save on costs.
The family claim that the opposite has been happening for the last two years and the radiators have remained on when heating costs more, resulting in huge bills.
Dealing with the situation on her behalf, Mrs McLetchie’s niece Gillian Stirling said it has been a “nightmare”.
She said “The time clock is running slow. When the heating was supposed to be on, it was off because of this.
“Last week when we had the snow, the temperature at her house was 12 degrees. She was freezing.
“It just seems that they have been using Covid as an excuse. This just seems like their get out, they’re not coming to people’s houses. Covid is getting the blame for everything.
“We’ve looked at changing suppliers but we wanted Scottish Power to fix the issue first. If we changed supplier, Margaret would still have the same issue.
“It just seems bizarre that she is paying this much.”
The issue has been ongoing for almost two years. The Glasgow Times has been shown records of correspondence with Scottish Power that Mrs McLetchie and Ms Stirling have kept since then, suggesting that the issue had not been resolved satisfactorily.
Ms Stirling claims that
Mrs McLetchie has had multiple visits from engineers who did not fix the issue.
As well as that, Ms Stirling has submitted multiple complaints via email that she claims have not been dealt with.
Upon hearing Mrs McLetchie’s complaint, the Glasgow Times contacted Scottish Power about the case.
The company sent an engineer out the next day who replaced the faulty timer and the energy giant has pledged to keep in touch with Mrs McLetchie to check on the equipment.
The family are now demanding answers as to why the issue wasn’t dealt with for more than two years.
A Scottish Power spokesman said: “We’re very sorry for the issues Mrs McLetchie experienced and for the time it took to get these issues resolved.
“We have reached out to Mrs McLetchie and her family to apologise to them and have replaced the faulty timeclock.
“We will continue to work with Mrs McLetchie and her family over the coming weeks to ensure the new timeclock is working as required and to monitor her energy use and will refund any overpayments she may have made as a result of the faulty timeclock.”
Last week when we had the snow, the temperature was 12 degrees. She was freezing