Jail for Bucky thief who abused store staff

A man who stuffed a bottle of Buckfast down his trousers and racially abused staff at a Bannockburn store was this week jailed.

Declan Smith, whose address previously given as present whereabouts unknown, had admitted a charge of stealing a bottle of alcohol at the Aslam foodstore in Newmarket on November 17 last year.

The 24-year-old also pleaded guilty to a charge of acting in a racially aggravated manner towards two men by shouting, swearing and uttering racist comments at the store on the same date. Both offences occurred while Smith was on bail on another matter.

Fiscal depute Lindsey Brooks told Sheriff Pino Di Emidio at Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday that Smith had put the £7.50 bottle of Buckfast down his trousers and left the store without paying. Two other coaccused had “already been dealt with” by the courts, she added. The bottle of Buckfast was not recovered.

The racially-aggravated matter she explained had taken place while the shopkeeper had been on the phone to the police.

Smith had been trying to prevent the shopkeeper from contacting the police and shouted ‘F*** the police’ and p*** b ******* .’

Smith’s laywer Simon Hutchison told Sheriff Di Emidio a report prepared for the court had mentioned a Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO). However, the lawyer did not consider it relevant as Smith had spent time in custody on the charges before being liberated on bail. Since then, he added, “other matters” at Falkirk Sheriff

Court had “caught up” with Smith who faces sentence there.

Mr Hutchison added: “To me Mr Smith will be clean when he comes out of custody. I don’t understand the need for a DTTO. An assessment will have to wait his liberation from custody.”

He asked the sheriff to deal with the matter as leniently as possible considering all the factors and taking into account the time Smith had already spent in custody.

Sheriff Di Emidio admonished and dismissed Smith on the Buckfast theft charge “notwithstanding the nature of your record.”

However, he jailed Smith for just over two months on the charge of acting in a racially aggravated manner. The term was discounted from 150 days imprisonment to 135 days due to his guilty plea.

Sheriff Di Emidio told him: “I have to take account of the time you have spent in custody in relation to this matter. I have to deduct 72 days from 135 days. I make that 63 days, so the sentence is 63 days.”

Thirty days of that sentence was attributable to the bail aggravation.