Man who missed court is locked up

A traveller has been caged after he disappeared when he was told he had to give evidence in his brother’s theft trial.

Thomas Reid, 47, was ordered to turn witness after sibling William, 27, was accused of swiping £ 2,400 from OAPs.

But the case collapsed after he went to ground instead of appearing in the box.

Reid was jailed for a fortnight after he was dragged back into Paisley Sheriff Court.

Sheriff Craig Harris told him he had committed a “very serious” offence.

Reid had originally appeared alongside William accused of stealing cash from Leslie and Margaret Auld, then both 69.

The court heard the pair had travelled to the pensioners’ home with pals and agreed to lop down trees for £250 in May 2016.

Prosecutors claimed one of the men stole cash from a cabinet while another distracted the couple by asking for aspirin for a headache.

Mr Auld insisted William Reid, of Balloch, West Dunbartonshire, looked like the man who had been in his home during the hearing last June.

He later picked him out from a series of police mugshots.

Mr Auld told the court : “The money was to visit my grandchildren in Ireland.

“We are just a couple of pensioners. But, to some people, we are an opportunity to come back and back and back.”

Mr Auld, a retired market trader, says he did not believe Thomas Reid was not one of the men who targeted his home and charges against him were dropped.

He was due to give evidence in the trial but could not be traced when it called for another sitting last July.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and the case against his sibling was subsequently dropped.

Reid, of Irvine, Ayrshire, was found guilty of contempt of court last month sentenced to 14 days in prison.