A violent drunk trashed a BP garage where he tried to spray fuel all over the forecourt, ruined 3,580 shop items and caused £30,000 of damage.
Derek Ellington’s destructive rampage “terrified” witnesses, who feared the BP filling station in Dyce might go up in flames.
The 36-year-old had been released from police custody just hours before he wandered into the Wellheads Avenue business.
After being asked to leave, Ellington began flinging glass bottles and a shopworker pressed the panic button while another witness hid in the staff room.
But before police could get there, the vandal totally ransacked the shop and forecourt, throwing around equipment, bottles, food and anything else he could get his hands on.
Ellington tried to spray fuel from the pumps all over the forecourt – a reckless act that caused witnesses to feel “absolutely terrified”, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Fiscal depute Carol Gammie said Ellington had been released early from prison, just four months before his “blind rage”.
She said Ellington arrived at the shop at 5.55pm on January 20 this year and appeared “drunk and aggressive”.
He was escorted from the shop by a worker and a member of the public.
But Ellington became “irate” and followed them back inside.
He immediately began grabbing and flinging glass bottles and jars from a fridge and smashed them on the floor.
The member of the public hid in the staff room while the shopworker pressed a panic alarm button at the till.
“From the CCTV footage, which captured all of this incident, the accused appears to be in a blind rage,” Ms Gammie said.
“He continued to destroy and throw items – including foodstuffs, a credit card terminal, a lottery ticket machine and a vape display cabinet and its contents – endangering the worker, who was forced again to move out of the way of the destructive path.”
When another member of the public pulled up at the garage to fill up, he spotted Ellington inside throwing wine bottles around and tried to go and help.
Vandal tried to spray fuel all over the Dyce BP garage forecourt
“He deemed this too dangerous, however,” the fiscal added. “He went back to his car and drove out of the forecourt and contacted the police.
“The accused then walked out of the store towards some shrubbery, where he picked up a rock about the size of a small football and threw it at the glass door, which smashed.
“He then re-entered the store and, this time closer to the doorway, he threw food packets, bottles, cans and jars from the shelves and onto the floor.”
Ellington then went outside and terrified witnesses even further when he started pulling all the handles off of the fuel pumps.
“He repeatedly attempted to get fuel out of the hoses, stopping occasionally to search through his own pockets, and he then took the metal handle of one of the pumps and tried to smash the plastic screen at the pump.
“He then walked back towards the store, where he picked up a fire log and smashed some of the windows of the store from the outside.
“He then emptied out a bag of coals onto the forecourt, between the shop and the petrol pump, that he had previously been trying to use.
“He can again be seen searching his pockets as if he was looking for an item that he could not locate.
“This behaviour, especially his efforts to spray fuel and the potential consequences, terrified the witnesses.”
Police arrived at the chaotic scene around 20 minutes later.
Petrol nozzles were strewn across the ground, two windows and a door had been smashed, broken glass was all over the shop floor and Ellington was still inside “ransacking the premises”.
He was wrestled to the ground outside and then handcuffed.
The area had to be treated with extreme care over concerns about the spillage from fuel pumps.
He called one police officer a ‘fat gay boy’
As Ellington was taken into custody, he called one police officer a “fat gay boy”.
In response to being cautioned and charged, he asked: “Was that the boy in Sainsbury’s?” before adding: “Nah, it was at Sainsbury’s I was slagging the gay person”.
The BP garage was closed until 3pm the following day and suffered a total estimated loss of around £30,000.
The unsellable stock came to £10,535 and the money lost from the fuel pumps being closed was estimated to be £5,000.
Losses from the shop being closed came to around £1,250 and the overall cost of physical damage to the premises was around £13,300.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan was also told that Ellington had been arrested and charged by police earlier that same day after he abused a shopworker at Sainsbury’s on School Hill, Aberdeen.
He’d warned the man: “Just you wait until you get outside for a smoke”, called him the “gayest thing ever” and said: “You should be a girl”.
As police took him away from the earlier incident, he shouted: “Go back to f****** Cheerz”, which is an LGBT+ bar in Aberdeen.
The incident at the filling station took place just hours after officers released him from Kittybrewster custody suite.
Ellington, who appeared from prison at HMP Grampian, admitted charges of malicious mischief, culpable and reckless conduct, threatening or abusive behaviour and two of assault.
‘He has no recollection of this incident’
His defence agent John McLeod said his client’s behaviour had been “bizarre and very concerning behaviour”.
He stressed that Ellington had seen his doctor with concerns about “anxiety and increasing paranoia” just one month before the incident.
“He has no recollection whatsoever of this incident,” McLeod added.
“It’s genuinely concerning and speaking to him this morning he appears to appreciate the danger he caused to others and himself.”
Sheriff Buchanan ordered background reports and deferred sentencing until next month.
Ellington was remanded in custody.
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