A sheriff immediate-ly recognised an accused man in the dock at Ayr Sheriff Court, writes Edwin Lawrence.
“I see more of you than I do of some of my grandchildren,” Sheriff John Montgomery told serial offender Robert McPheators, 39.
The sheriff thought he had seen the back of McPheators when he dealt with him just four days earlier.
For the court heard that housing and benefits had been fixed up for McPheators when he was released from cus-tody.
But a few days later, on March 25, he stole a block of cheese from the Co-op store in Ayr’s Sandgate.
“He met a friend who gave him something to take,” said defence lawyer Robert Logan.
“He was nearly run over in Fort Street on his way to the Co-op, where the staff know him almost as well as your lordship.
“The cheese made it off the shelf but not out of the door.”
Mr Logan admitted: “He’s a pest and a nuisance and his previous convictions add up to life imprisonment by instalments.”
The lawyer pleaded: “How anyone can go to jail, in this day and age, for stealing cheese is beyond me.”
But Sheriff Montgomery replied: “He’s incorrigible. It’s not the cheese. It’s the 300 offences before it.”
Mr Logan asked for a fine to be imposed and McPheators said from the dock that he had £200 saved up.
“I’ll fine you £100 – and leave you enough to buy cheese,” said the sheriff.
