A mum-of-three who stole £850 worth of whisky and brandished a bottle of Buckfast at police has had almost three months added on to her jail sentence.
Ellie-May Devlin is already serving a 16-month sentence behind bars at HMP Inverness after being jailed in June for breaking into the Marine Hotel in Buckie.
But now her earliest release date of January 2023 has been knocked on a further 80 days after she admitted a string of further offences.
The 26-year-old appeared via video link at Elgin Sheriff Court where the long list of charges against her was narrated to the court.
Stole multiple bottles of malt
Fiscal depute Karen Poke said Devlin stole bottles of malt whisky totalling £8o0 from Tesco in Forres during February and March last year, brazenly removing the security tags and placing them in a trolley before walking out.
On a second occasion, she stole whisky worth £50 from the Co-op in Buckie on May 6 last year, this time concealing it in her clothing and walking out.
But she was caught on CCTV on both occasions.
At around 9am on April 29 last year, Devlin came to the attention of police once again, this time after they were called to a disturbance at a house on Newmill Road in Elgin.
The fiscal said police heard shouting and the sound of items being thrown around inside before they were confronted by Devlin holding a bottle of Buckfast.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke said: “Police shouted at her to put the bottle down, which she was holding in her left hand by the base. But she transferred it to her right hand holding it by the neck.
“The officers were of the opinion that she was going to use it as a weapon and therefore disarmed her.”
‘I want to batter her’
Devlin also admitted an older offence whereby she threatened the home of a 16-year-old boy in Buckie because she “wanted to batter” an acquaintance taking refuge there.
She admitted to shouting swearing, striking the door there and uttering threats of violence on December 11, 2019.
As well as the shoplifting offences and two charges of threatening or abusive behaviour, Devlin also admitted seven breaches of night-time curfews.
These took place over the course of 17 months and related to four different properties in Keith, Findochty, Buckie and Elgin where she’d lived since August 2020.
‘She had a traumatic upbringing’
Defence agent Clare Russell blamed her offending on years of drug and alcohol misuse.
“She clearly doesn’t have her troubles to seek,” she said.
“A lot of this offending took place when she was under the influences of drugs or alcohol or both.
“She had quite a traumatic upbringing, but there was a time when she was cooperating well with the help she was getting.”
Sheriff Robert McDonald jailed Devlin, a prisoner at HMP Inverness, for a further 80 days.
“She is not going anywhere soon,” her defence agent admitted.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
