COURT ROUND-UP: Drink-driver jailed after car crash and fiend targets girls among last month's Inverness court business
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Inverness Sheriff Court saw a huge mix of criminal business in October.
Here's our recap of some of the cases that made the headlines last month.
A drink-driving mother-of-five who badly injured three men after she crashed her car into a bookmaker's premises has been jailed for three years.
Donna Stewart ignored pleas to slow down by the men, who were her passengers, before she drove her Mercedes into the building in Grant Street, Inverness.
Judge Graham Buchanan told Stewart (46) at the High Court in Edinburgh: "Your actions on the night in question were totally irresponsible and resulted in devastating consequences for each of your three victims."
A relationship break-up resulted in a flat being set on fire by a spurned lover and a family with four children being evacuated from the block of eight residences.
The incident happened on August 22, 2022 in Glendoe Terrace, Inverness after 24-year-old Jade Vint had been drinking with neighbours.
Police were called to the scene as well as firefighters who extinguished the early morning blaze which started in the hallway of the local authority property.
A 23-year-old Inverness man took and drove away a friend's car without permission and then caused a three-car collision on a bridge over the River Ness.
Jamie Glass, of Caledonian Road, was also an uninsured driver when the incident took place on April 30, 2022 at about 4.45pm on Friar's Bridge.
He admitted driving carelessly at excessive speed and without keeping proper observation, collided with a stationary vehicle causing it to be shunted forward into another car.
A police constable was spat in the eye and mouth by a 23-year-old man who tried to climb out of a window.
Officers had gone to a property in Carnarc Crescent, in Inverness, on January 14 to deal with a disturbance and saw Connor Mackay attempting to leave the property as he was in breach of a bail curfew.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Mackay, described as an Inverness prisoner, retreated inside and hid in a cupboard.
Officers from the National Child Abuse Investigation unit raided a Highland house and found indecent images of children on a 21-year-old man's phone.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that Jake Driver, now of Union Street, Inverness, who admitted downloading 37 photographs of girls aged between three and 12 years old, had analogous previous convictions.
He also pleaded guilty to breaching a special bail condition that he was not to be in the company of any child under the age of 17 without an adult present.
- READ MORE: Child abuse investigation unit found indecent images on Inverness man's phone during raid
A 60-year-old owner of a blue American bulldog who failed to keep it under proper control has been ordered to pay £750 compensation to a neighbour it attacked.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that the 10-month-old dog called Storm, who has since been put down, bit a chunk out of the man's arm, exposing the muscle.
Storm's victim had to visit the hospital twice a week for 10 weeks for treatment and has been left scarred.
A thief with a bad conviction record who stole a till off the counter of a food stall in Inverness's Victorian Market has been spared a jail sentence.
But Sheriff Gary Aitken warned 31-year-old Scott Burns, of Murray Terrace, Smithton, that he was on his "last chance".
He told Burns that if he did not co-operate with social workers supervising him for the next 18 months, he would go to jail.
Police stopped a motorist for a routine check and it led to the recovery of around £4300 worth of cocaine which he was dealing from his home and another property in the Merkinch area of Inverness.
At Inverness Sheriff Court, 26-year-old Lee Sayers, of Drumossie Road, Inverness admitted dealing cocaine in the Highland capital and was sentenced to 225 hours of unpaid community work.
Sayers had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of the Class A narcotic from his home and another property in Benula Road, Inverness on March 7 last year.
A 40-year-old woman abused a taxi driver from the Middle East, a Polish national and a black woman, telling her that she was a racist before swinging a punch and spitting at her victim.
The offences took place between February 2022 and July 2023 after Kimberley Fraser had left voicemails for a former boyfriend which contained a tirade of abuse and threats to him and his new partner.
Fraser, from Inverness, appeared from remand by video link at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a total of eight charges on one indictment, which originally contained 24 accusations.
A new driver drove into the path of a motor-cyclist at a busy Inverness city centre crossroads and collided with him.
There were no serious injuries but 22 year old Lucy Russell of Bohuntinville Road, Roy Bridge was charged by police with careless driving.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that the collision took place at the Ness Bridge on November 10 last year as Russell emerged from Bank Street on to the bridge.
A 14-year-old girl was subjected to vulgar and upsetting remarks by a drunk man on a train journey from Perth to Kingussie.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that married man Liam Curry (28) of Milton Crescent, Inverness, had boarded the evening train on December 9, 2022 with another man.
A pervert raped a 13-year-old girl in a hotel and threatened to share intimate pictures of her.
Joshua Pemberton (26), attacked the girl at a Travelodge in Livingston on January 22, 2022.
Pemberton, of Beauly, raped the girl and followed her into a bathroom where he put his arms around her.
A Nairn man fell into an online trap by responding to a post sent by someone pretending to be a 10-year-old girl.
Fiscal depute Susan Love told Sheriff Sara Matheson that a woman set herself up as a "solo decoy" by posting a message with the user name "offskoolsick" purporting to be the child.
And 62-year-old Harry Croft responded to the online post and eventually there was police involvement, heard Inverness Sheriff Court.
A young Inverness man with a drugs problem who broke into his grandparents' house while they were on holiday, was not even aware whose house it was he had entered, the city's sheriff court heard.
Colin Sanders (22), of County Houses, Lochend, appeared via video link from custody today and admitted the break-in with intent to steal on September 21, while on bail.
Fiscal depute David Morton told Sheriff Gary Aitken that a neighbour heard glass being smashed at 4am, knew the couple were on holiday and suspected someone might be breaking in so called the police.
