A bail breacher has been branded “not a very good criminal” after telling police he wasn’t who they were looking for – despite meeting the same officers less than an hour earlier.
Lee Slater, 22, was caught driving his orange Mini in an Elgin street that he’s banned from entering.
He tried to pretend he was someone else when officers caught him outside.
But his attempt was “doomed to fail” – Elgin Sheriff Court heard – because the same officers knew who he was as they’d visited him earlier that same evening.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke said officers had carried out a routine curfew check and found Slater at home as expected on the evening of April 12 this year.
But they next found him breaking his court order only 40 minutes later.
Slater ‘basically took a chance’
“Basically he answered the door for the curfew check, then 40 minutes later, police saw him driving his orange Mini on the street he was banned from,” the fiscal explained.
“He told them he was someone else.”
Slater’s defence agent Iain Maltman said his client – a former offshore worker who is currently looking for work – “basically took a chance” in going out, knowing the police had already checked on him.
“There appears to be some truth in what he says about going to that address to pick up things for his work.
“He did ultimately cooperate with police after giving the false information,” Mr Maltman added.
‘He’s not a very good criminal, is he?’
But Slater’s attempt to deny his real identity was “doomed to fail” right from the beginning, Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood told the court.
“He’s not a very good criminal, is he?” the sheriff remarked.
“He thought, ‘The police have been here, I can nip out now ’cause they won’t come back’,” he added.
“He told police he was someone else despite the same officers having met him 40 minutes earlier. That was doomed to fail, wasn’t it?”
Slater, of Dunvegan Crescent in Elgin, admitted breaching a bail condition – imposed by the court on October 10 last year – to keep away from Meadow Crescent.
The sheriff fined him £210.
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