Delay to attempted theft and forgery trial

The trial of a Perth pensioner, accused of attempting to steal £40,000 from the building society account of a 93-year-old woman, now dead - and then transferring it to his - has been delayed.

Seventy-five-year-old James Heggie also faces a second charge of trying to pass off as genuine a forged will in which he had been named as a beneficiary to the tune of almost £52,000.

The OAP was to have been tried by a jury on August 9 but solicitor Billy Somerville said the defence was not “in a position to proceed”.

Heggie, of Castle Place, Letham, had a pre-trial hearing set for Perth Sheriff Court on September 23 and his bail was continued meantime.

It is alleged that on October 18, 2017, at the deceased woman Jane Scott’s former house in Perth’s Balhousie Street, and at the local branch of the Nationwide in High Street, he attempted to transfer £40,000 from her account into one held in his own name.

It is claimed that he did that “without her consent” - and that he attempted to steal the five-figure sum.

A second charge alleges that between December 14 and 31, 2017, at a house in the city’s Oakbank Crescent, Heggie “uttered as genuine” a will in which he had been named as beneficiary to a sum amounting to £51,959.

The charge states that the will contained the signatures of Andrew Bruce McLean and Sheena McLean, which had been forged, and that he then presented the document to Ann Geary Harvey, c/o Police Scotland.

Sheriff William Wood discharged Monday’s trial date and fixed the September hearing.