A YOUNG man from Alloa has been sentenced to nine months in a young offender’s institute after admitting a catalogue of shocking offences.

Ewan Neil appeared at Alloa Sheriff Court last Thursday, April 12, for sentencing on public disorder matters and a number of community payback order (CPO) breaches.

Susannah Hutchison, prosecuting, said that at 5.50am on May 1, 2016, Neil was at a friend’s house drinking and found the keys to his friend’s father’s car.

The pair proceeded to get in the vehicle with Neil driving.

Ms Hutchison said: “The accused drove the car through Alloa town centre then crashed into a lamp post at Shillinghill roundabout. CCTV showed erratic driving, speeding and ignoring no entry signs.”

A member of the public checked on the car’s occupants before phoning police. Neil was found to be over three times the legal drink drive limit. Charges of driving without a licence and insurance were dropped.

Not long after on June 10, 2016, the then 16-year-old walked into Spar, Alloa, around 9.30am and picked up a selection of items from the alcohol aisle before leaving the store without paying.

This offence was committed with two other males, one of whom allegedly brandished a bottle at an employee, a charge which was then dropped.

The most serious charge, which the Advertiser previously reported on, was in relation to an incident which took place at Alloa Academy on April 27.

The 19-year-old entered the school and chased two males who were pupils at the school while armed with a “small baseball bat”.

Both complainers were able to reach a campus police officer who in turn chased Neil and caught him and could not give any explanation as to why he was in the school.

Neil was also facing charges of failing to appear at court on November 14, 2016 without reasonable excuse.

More recently on March 18 at The Orchard, Tullibody, Neil behaved in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting and swearing. That charge was amended to remove a section which said he challenged police officers to engage in a fight.

The second charge from that date states that he wilfully damaged the property of another by jumping on a car.

Kristina Kelly, defending Neil, of Ashley Terrace, Alloa, told the court that a custodial sentence was inevitable for these offences, to which Sheriff David Mackie replied: “Custody should never be inevitable, but sometimes it becomes so.”

Ms Kelly went on to say that Neil is hoping his stint in custody will allow him to address his alcohol and drug issues and sees it as “an opportunity”.

Sheriff Mackie poured water on that by saying any sentence will not be long enough to learn a trade but that he should do so when he is out and is “one of us” again.

The sheriff told Neil that he was sorry that it had come to this and that it was never the intention of the court to see him being imprisoned.

He was sentenced to two nine month spells in a young offender’s institute, to run concurrently, and was disqualified from driving.