Grangemouth offender on crutches told police he was too slow to make his 7pm curfew

William McPhee, 34, appeared from custody via video link at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday having pleaded guilty to breaching his 7pm to 7am curfew in Tinto Drive, Grangemouth on January 5. He admitted another curfew breach in Lumley Place Falkirk on September 30 last year.

Christine Brownlie, procurator fiscal depute, said: “It was 10pm and police received a call regarding concerns for a person in the street. They found the accused in Tinto Drive at 10.30pm.

"He told officers ‘Sorry I couldn’t walk any faster’.”

Defence solicitor Lynn Swan said: “He is a man who does have significant physical and mental health difficulties. On the day in question he did not have a valid bus pass and had to walk back to Grangemouth from Camelon while he was on crutches.”

Mcphee also pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour in Cultenhove Crescent, Grangemouth on August 21, 2022 and threatening behaviour and damaging property in Kersiebank Avenue, Grangemouth on October 16, 2022.

The procurator fiscal depute said: “It was 8.45pm at the block of flats and the witness was in her home at the time when she heard banging going on in the close area and the accused shouting ‘I’m coming to burn this place down’.

"Another witness looked out into the corridor area and saw the accused in the close shouting ‘Mikey let me in’. She told him Mikey did not live at the address and then heard him say he was going to burn the place down.”

His defence solicitor said McPhee had indeed been shouting for a “gentleman called Mikey”, but he was in the completely wrong place due to his being heavily under the influence of alcohol at the time.

On another occasion McPhee lost his temper when he was told his mother was not coming to see him and took his frustrations out on a neighbour’s door.

Sheriff Christopher Shead sentenced McPhee, 214 Kersiebank Avenue, Grangemouth, to 19-and-a-half months in prison for all offences.