A drunken engineering student who wrote off his girlfriend's motor by kicking it repeatedly in a car park outside her work has been spared jail.
Ross McDonald, 20, turned up "extremely intoxicated" at Tesco in Falkirk's Central Retail Park, where he and his then partner Rachel Cairns both worked, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told.
Mrs Ann Orr, prosecuting, said: "He spoke with his partner Miss Cairns for a short time before leaving.
"He then returned about 10 pm, was seen there by another member of staff, and was asked to leave because he was drunk.
"He was then seen to be in the car park, beside Miss Cairns' vehicle, kicking the front of the vehicle, and damaging the door handles and wing mirror.
"He was spoken to and asked if it was his car, and he said, 'Obviously', but then ran away."
Police were called and McDonald, who by then had returned to the scene, told officers it was his partner's car, he had kicked it, and he was supposed to be getting a lift that night.
He was arrested and told police, "I've done it, but I've not done it in bad terms."
A quote put the cost of repairing the damage as £750.
Mrs Orr said: "The insurers would not cover that, and the car was written off."
She also claims Miss Cairns had told police that she did not like McDonald to drink alcohol.
Mrs Orr added: "She said that every time there was alcohol there was an incident."
McDonald, of Falkirk, a fourth-year environmental engineering student, pleaded guilty to vandalism. The incident happened on Saturday May 1, 2021.
Solicitor Lynn Swan, defending, said McDonald, a first offender, was indeed under the influence of alcohol at the time, and had "absolutely no recollection of the incident whatsoever".
She said as a result, McDonald had lost his part-time job at Tesco.
Fining McDonald £470, Sheriff Eric Brown told him: "You appear as a first offender. It's very unfortunate when someone in your position, about to enter the fourth year of an engineering degree, should find himself before the court on a charge such as this.
"It demonstrates what those of us who sit in the courts are all too familiar with -- the perils of drink -- and hopefully this will be a salutary lesson to you."
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