A serial offender who went on the run from Castle Huntly ‘open’ prison for 25 days paid the penalty when he was jailed for 12 months at Perth Sheriff Court.
Thirty-four-year-old Michael Broomfield will do the time at the end of the five-year stretch he is currently serving.
Fifty-two months of that were imposed for stealing more than £44,000 using a digger in a ram raid on a cash machine at a north-east store.
He tried to escape with the ATM but the getaway car broke down and he was arrested.
Broomfield admitted making off from the Longforgan prison on February 22, 2021, and attempting to defeat the ends of justice when he appeared via video link from Grampian Prison.
Depute fiscal Michael Sweeney told the court that Broomfield has 71 previous convictions, mainly for offences of dishonesty and violence.
Castle Huntly staff contacted police at 8pm on February 21 to tell them the accused had absconded.
CCTV showed him running from one of the Astroturf pitches through fields and onto the A90 Perth-Dundee road.
He was subsequently arrested in Campbeltown on March 19 where he had “come to the attention of a member of the public”.
A lawyer for the accused said he had “proceeded well” through the prison system since receiving his 60-month sentence in June 2019.
He had moved from Grampian Prison to Castle Huntly last October and had been looking forward to parole.
But the solicitor explained: “Family matters took a turn for the worse after the New Year and he had a bit of a fall-out with his wife of 10 years.
“He took it into his head, for whatever reason, that he would go back home.”
His earliest release date was to have been June 7, 2024, but he had “shot himself in the foot in so many ways”.
Describing his record as “appalling,” Sheriff William Wood noted that since Broomfield was 19 - back in 2005 - there had not been a 12-month period since then that he had not spent part of each year in custody.
“It begs the question: ‘When are you going to grow up?’
“If you want a proper family life, this is not the way to go about it.
“I hope you will reflect on that statistic.”
Ordering the 12 months to run consecutive to his present sentence, Sheriff Wood added: “You had every opportunity to return to prison or surrender yourself but you didn’t do that.
“You ended up in a remote part of Scotland - in Campbeltown.”
Broomfield, along with others, used a digger to attach chains to the cash machine at a Scotmid outlet in Torphins, Aberdeenshire.
But the getaway was foiled when their gold Chrysler car broke down – and Broomfield’s fingerprint was found on the vehicle.
