A violent drunk who smashed up a BP garage in a “blind rage” leaving £30,000 of damage has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.
Derek Ellington’s destructive rampage “terrified” witnesses, who feared the BP filling station in Dyce might go up in flames as he tried to spray fuel over the forecourt.
The 36-year-old previously admitted a string of charges and has now appeared back in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced.
Sheriff Ian Wallace acknowledged Ellington had served the equivalent of a one-year sentence while on remand, but imposed 109 days relating to an unexpired portion of a previous sentence.
Regarding these offences, he handed Ellington a community payback order as a direct alternative to prison, consisting of two years of supervision and 150 hours unpaid work.
Ellington 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 previously told the court how 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.”
Ellington then went outside and terrified witnesses even further when he started pulling all the handles off of the fuel pumps.
Police arrived at the chaotic scene around 20 minutes later.
Five-figure sum of damage
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 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.
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.
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.
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