A crook has been slammed by a sheriff after he set his employer’s van on fire in Paisley to cover up the fact he had crashed it.
While James Rae’s boss was on holiday in October last year, he had been asked to carry out some extra delivery shifts.
During a shift, Rae – who has multiple High Court convictions – crashed the van into a lorry and rather than own up to his boss, he took the vehicle back to the Clark Street yard and set it on fire in a “premeditated criminal act” which caused £10,000 worth of damage.
The 45-year-old claimed he “was in a state of panic” but Sheriff Eoin McGinty refused to believe the pathetic excuse and jailed Rae, described as a prisoner of Low Moss jail, East Dunbartonshire, for 55 weeks.
Prosecutor, Dana Barclay told Paisley Sheriff Court: “Around 5.35pm on October 21, police tasked the Scottish fire service to attend a van which had been observed to be on fire in Clark Street. The watch commander concluded the fire had been set deliberately and was wilful.
“DNA swabs were taken from within the vehicle and police spoke to the owner, Mr Martin, who advised the driver would have been Rae. Officers attended at Rae’s house and he stated he was the driver.
“Police also checked CCTV which showed the accused to enter the yard in his vehicle. The vehicle then awkwardly manoeuvres and parks. Rae exits the vehicle and then smoke is seen emanating from the van and then Rae drives away.
“When cautioned and charged by officers, Rae replied, ‘I panicked. I hit a big lorry at the roundabout in Paisley. I just panicked and set the van alight to cover the damage. I’m really sorry’. Rae was then arrested.”
The court heard the van was written off as the damage was estimated to be around £10,000 while Rae’s defence agent explained it was “regrettable this happened”.
He said: “After being released from prison, he wanted to do the right thing and made himself available for work. He had become well thought of for this company and was given this extra responsibility.
“He accepts this was the entirely wrong course of conduct. He says he was in a state of panic. He has been remanded for this offence now for 50 days.”
Rae was jailed in November 2019 after he attacked a man with a hammer over drug debt.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Rae was jailed for three years and four months after he admitted assaulting Scott Ferns with a hammer, to the danger of his life.
Following the attack, Ferns was taken to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where he was examined and found to have a cut above his left eyebrow, two fractures to his left eye socket, a fracture on his skull, a broken rib and a collapsed lung.
Slamming the thug, Sheriff Eoin McGinty said: “This was quite simply a nasty and dangerous offence. Rather than own up to a minor misdemeanour you set your employer’s van alight.
“I don’t believe for one minute that you panicked. If you did, you’d have done this immediately. But you drove home, entered your employer’s yard in your own vehicle and set the van alight before you left again.
“This was a premeditated criminal act. You have a horrendous record including several High Court offences and this was committed while you were on licence at the time.”
Sheriff McGinty returned Rae to prison to serve two months of his unexpired jail sentence. In addition, for setting the van on fire, he was jailed for 55 weeks. He had been previously jailed at the High Court in Glasgow for seven years in 2000 for assault with intent to rob.
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