Grangemouth teen vandal tagged

The young hooligan, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was later seen on CCTV screens being monitored by the police using a hammer to destroy an ATM in a Grangemouth shopping centre.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday the 17-year-old who caused nearly £3000 of damage that night narrowly avoided detention.

Instead, Sheriff Derek Livingston ordered him to be ‘tagged’ for six months and placed on a supervised community payback order for two years for being involved in “an evening of wanton vandalism”.

The court heard that a neighbour in Montgomery Street in Grangemouth was woken in the early hours of September 29 by the noise a group of youths were making outside. She looked out and saw the tearaway kicking wing mirrors off cars – including her own vehicle – and called the police.

Hours later CCTV operators directed police to Charlotte Dundas Court in Grangemouth after he was seen smashing the ATM. More images recorded then caught him vandalising another parked vehicle in James Cornwall Court with the hammer.

The youngster, from the Bowhouse area of the town, was later traced by officers to a local address where they also recovered a hammer from the side of a couch.

Defence lawyer Willie McIntyre claimed his client was a “troubled young man who was drinking far too much alcohol.”

He said: “He had consumed a great quantity of drink that night and cannot remember anything about it. This is a huge wake-up call for him. He is genuinely remorseful and knows his behaviour was completely over the top.”