A Macduff woman who was spared jail after blackmailing her married lover could be locked up for not doing the unpaid work that she was ordered to carry out as her punishment.
Laura Chapman had a brief relationship with the married captain of a boat that regularly docked in Macduff.
But she later threatened to reveal the pair’s naughty messages to each other with the man’s wife.
When he ended their fling, the 36-year-old became upset and demanded various sums of cash to buy her silence.
The skipper paid up on three occasions but, when Chapman demanded a fourth payment, he told his wife he was being blackmailed and contacted the police.
‘It looks like you are just being a chancer’
Chapman avoid jail time when she was sentenced at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in September 2021.
Instead, she was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and given 12-months of supervision.
But 18 months on, the offender had still not completed the work and was forced to appear in the dock at Banff Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Robert McDonald told her: “I have had the impression more than once that you don’t really appreciate the situation you are in here.
“You were convicted on indictment of a serious charge. You were given a chance not to go to jail and you were given a community payback order.
“But sometimes you give the impression you just don’t care about it. If you don’t comply, you will go to jail. I am in no doubt about that.”
The sheriff warned Chapman she had two months to cooperate before a report from social workers is returned to the court.
“If you have a valid reason for not attending an unpaid work party, you must provide medical vouching,” Sheriff McDonald added.
“It looks like you are just being a chancer, so, if you don’t, you will be treated as such.”
‘If you think I’m bluffing, try me’
Aberdeen Sheriff Court previously heard Chapman’s victim knew her from the local area, and in October 2018, had given her a lift home after spotting her in Banff.
The pair then spoke over the phone and continued chatting for a number of days.
On October 5 2018, Chapman messaged the man asking for a “favour”.
She said: “Can you go put 35 quid into my bank account, as I have to pay that in, before my money will clear.
“I will not say anything to anyone about being with you or anything to do with you at all. I swear, I will forever keep it a secret between you and me, so please can you.”
She then sent a follow-up message urging “please don’t ignore me” and promising “you can trust me”.
The man sent Chapman the money but said he would not give her any more and that he did not want any further contact.
On October 13, after the man returned from being at sea, he received another text from Chapman.
It read: “If you don’t want me to send the messages to your wife, then it’s going to cost you 60 quid, so up to you, I’m not giving a **** anymore.
“I’ve waited all night for you to give me a ring and that’s after me saying you don’t need money or drugs, and you go and do that. So no, **** it, I’ve got nothing to lose, so your choice!”
Chapman told the man to post the money through her letterbox by 10am, warning him: “If no, then I will be forwarding all messages to your wife.”
She added: “If you think I’m bluffing, try me as I have every text.”
Holidays and a shoulder injury blamed for lack of unpaid work
The man handed over money twice more before he told his wife that Chapman had been extorting him and then contacted the police.
Chapman, of James Street in Macduff, pled guilty to a charge of extortion.
Her defence agent Stuart Beveridge told the court at the time that his client was “upset” when the skipper ended their short relationship.
He said Chapman’s drug problem was “out of control” at the time but had since got herself free of addiction.
In mitigation for her poor community payback order review 18 months on, he said Chapman had gained employment at a meat factory in Turriff and, when working, complied well with her unpaid work hours.
But he said that holidays and a shoulder injury, which meant she’d been signed off work, had caused her routine to slip.
“The penny seems to have dropped,” he told the sheriff. “I would ask your Lordship to give her another chance.”
Sheriff Robert McDonald ordered another community payback order review to take place in two months’ time.
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