Yell man jailed for thefts that shocked isle

A man has been jailed for a year for breaking into a garage in Yell and stealing £2,500 and pilfering money from an honesty box in a caravan park.

Lerwick Sheriff Court heard yesterday that the crimes of Jason Pottinger had led people in the community to change the way they led their lives.

Pottinger, of Meadowbank Road in Burravoe, admitted breaking into Victor Jamieson’s garage in Mid Yell and stealing a money box, money bags and a sum of money on 19th and 20th March last year. The total was put at about £2,500. None of it was recovered.

Pottinger also admitted forcing open an honesty box at the Burravoe Pier caravan park in 28th June this year and stealing money – valued at £115.

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said that “more significant is the impact on the community that this particular type of offence has.” Theft, he said, was still relatively rare in Shetland, never mind Yell.

He described Pottinger as someone with an aggressive drugs habit who was not clear in his recollection of whether he had “done these things”.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said that the offences were a matter of embarrassment for Pottinger, who was on a methadone prescription, and his family.

Sheriff Philip Mann said that given the amount of money involved and the nature of the thefts he would give the maximum sentence of a year for breaking into Jamieson’s garage and four months for the caravan park theft. With discounts these amounted to a year altogether that Pottinger will serve in prison.

Pottinger also pleaded guilty to six road traffic offences on at Ulsta on 18th March including driving an unlicensed, uninsured car that had its front nearside window covered with a tarpaulin. He received six penalty points on his licence and was fined £500 in total for these offences.