A THUG who has been described as acting like a gangster was jailed for eight years last week for a “brutal and senseless” axe attack on a Kincardine car wash employee.

Joseph Gilogley (27) had sunk a large part of an inheritance into the valeters in Kincardine, Fife, before his business partner ran off leaving behind serious debt.

The Glasgow man was left without his money and the car wash was later taken over by another individual.

However, raging Gilogley stormed up to the premises on 29 September last year and demanded his investment back.

Innocent worker Ryszard Nowakowski was punched and struck with an axe during a vicious assault with Gilogley telling him: “You will be getting this every day until you leave here.” Mr Nowakowski was badly hurt as a result, sustaining injuries to his head, arm and eye.

The incident was investigated by officers in Fife’s pro-active investigations unit, who through the support of the local community, were able to trace Gilogley at his home in Drumoyne, Glasgow.

At the High Court in Glasgow last Thursday (July 2), his defence agent Graeme Brown tried to mitigate his clients actions as “The money owed to Mr Gilogley was not an insubstantial amount.” But Judge Norman Ritchie QC jailed Gilogley after he pled guilty to assault and acting in a threatening manner.

He told him: “How you went about trying to recover the money was by the way of a gangster. That is absolutely unacceptable in a civilised society.” Speaking after Gilogley’s conviction, a spokesperson from Police Scotland said it was fortunate the 34-year-old was not killed during the attack.

Detective Inspector Colin Robson added: “The attack on the victim of this crime was both brutal and senseless and shocked the local community.

“It resulted in a large scale investigation and the sentence now given reflects the seriousness of the crime for which he was convicted and I would like to thank everyone who assisted the police with this inquiry.”