Claggan man warned jail possibility after trial ends
A BUILDING site worker from Claggan, Fort William, was warned by a sheriff last week that there was a real probability of a prison sentence after he was found guilty of two charges – reset of a car and number plates.
Antonio Sabiu, 61, had already pleaded guilty to charges that on December 11, 2017, at North Road, Fort William, he had driven a car without insurance or an appropriate licence.
But he had denied two other charges involving the reset of a pair of number plates and a VW car worth £22,000 on the same date and at the same location.
The trial was spread over several days last week and included the viewing of CCTV footage from the BP garage in North Road, which showed Sabiu driving the VW on to the forecourt before exiting the vehicle and eventually walking away from the garage.
The video footage also showed the arrival of an unmarked police car, from which officers emerged and searched the VW’s two passengers and the car itself.
On being questioned by the police, Sabiu had told officers that the car had been loaned to him by a man he knew from the Dumbarton area the day before his arrest.
Sabiu told the court he had been unaware the car and plates were stolen and that he only found this information out half way through questioning by police officers.
Sabiu was not in the car by the time officers arrived at the filling station, but he came to their attention standing outside its shop and acting in a way officers thought strange.
He had then turned and walked away, but was eventually traced by police. However, there was no sign of the £22,000 car’s keys either in the vehicle or along the route Sabiu had walked away from the garage even a police dog failed to find any trace of the keys.
The court also heard that police had failed to trace Sabiu’s Dumbarton associate.
Sabiu told Procurator Fiscal Robert Weir he was ‘raging’ when he found out the car and plates were stolen and intended tracking down his Dumbarton friend to confront him about it.
However, Mr Weir pointed out to Sabiu that in the statement he gave police, the first question concerned the car being stolen.
‘I didn’t take it seriously - I thought they were just trying to rattle me. It wouldn’t be the first time police have tried to rattle me,’ replied Sabiu.
Mr Weir said it was nonsense Sabiu had not taken being questioned by the police seriously and also doubted whether his friend from Dumbarton even existed.
On the issue of the missing keys, Sabiu said he didn’t know where they were as he had left them in the ignition when he got out of the vehicle to go into the filling station shop.
Asked why he had walked away instead of returning to the car, Sabiu said he had become unhappy with the two passengers, who he said had been drinking.
Summing up the Crown case, Mr Weir said the evidence that Sabiu was guilty was credible and reliable.
On the final day, Friday, defence agent Gerard Sweeney argued, albeit unsuccessfully, that his client had no case to answer on the charges of resetting either the number plates or the car.
In his summing up, Mr Sweeney said there was no proof of guilty knowledge on his client’s part.
As for the missing keys, Mr Sweeney said the keys could be in the vehicle and it could be a case that officers could simply not find them.
‘That very often happens,’ he said. ‘Just because the police could not find the keys does not mean Mr Sabiu is wrong.’
Because Sabiu had a considerable number of previous analagous convictions, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald warned him he could well be facing a period of imprisonment.
Sentence was deferred for the compilation of a criminal justice social work report until June 19 and bail was continued.