Man jailed for threatening behaviour after failure to complete payback order

An offender who was caught in possession of methadone and behaved in a threatening manner at an address in Lerwick has been jailed for three months.

Graeme Hannah, 28, of Hamnavoe, Burra, pleaded guilty to the offences, which took place roughly a year apart, at Lerwick Sheriff Court last Thursday.

Procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said that Hannah had been by stopped by police on 2nd September last year, where police recovered 50 millilitres of methadone, with a “value of about £10”.

Hannah also appeared before the court in relation to an earlier offence where he behaved in a threatening manner by uttering abusive remarks and threats of violence at Ladies Drive, Lerwick, in October 2015.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said that the offences could be traced back to the death of a friend, at which point Hannah had gone “off the rails”,

Mr Allan said his client had “turned a corner” in his life since then and that “although the base level might not have been that great” there had been “an improvement.”

In summarising his decision to pass down a custodial sentence Sheriff Philip Mann referred to a community payback order for the earliest of the two offences which Hannah had failed to carry out.

He said: “You have presented me with a very difficult decision but the reality is that you have had numerous opportunities to comply with the community payback order.”

In revoking the payback order Sheriff Mann said that he had to consider the offences as if he had never issued the order to begin with. However, he did take note of Hannah’s character in passing his judgement.

“I don’t regard you as a bad person,” he told Hannah, but “as someone who has had the misfortune to have a drug addiction.”

Sheriff Mann added: “Nonetheless something has to be done for the protection of society.”

In sentencing Hannah to three months in jail Sheriff Mann said that handing out the custodial sentence was something he did without “any great pleasure”.

He said that Hannah should take the opportunity to stay clean and reflect on his choices in order to “come out and get your life on track”.

Sheriff Mann also fined Hannah £200 for the drug offence.