Sheriff jails two men after car vandalism spree through Nairn

Two men who vandalised cars in a rampage through Nairn were each jailed for eight months at Inverness Sheriff Court.

But 26-year-old Callum Hilson, of Clune Terrace, Newtonmore, was told by Sheriff Gary Aitken it was only the effect on his partner and two children that spared him from a lengthier sentence.

The Inverness chef had also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of assaulting a man in Lombard Street, Inverness, on the early morning of October 3 this year by hitting him on the head with a glass to his injury.

The sheriff told him it was “an exceptionally nasty assault” after hearing that an intoxicated Hilson reacted after his victim refused to give him a cigarette.

Hilson and his co-accused, 26-year-old Sam Maguire, of Duncan Drive, Nairn, had previously admitted two charges of vandalism which occurred in the town’s High Street on February 17, 2020.

Hilson also pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour by shouting and swearing, pushing over litter bins, throwing plant pots on to the roadway and kicking wing mirrors of parked vehicles in Lodgehill Road, Nairn.

Maguire, who is currently serving a 12-month jail sentence for other offences, admitted an additional charge of resisting arrest by struggling with three police officers.

Sentence had been deferred for background reports on both.

The court was told that an eyewitness saw the pair kicking cars as they walked up Nairn’s High Street and decided to follow them.

In Cawdor Road, he observed Hilson shouting and swearing and kicking over litter bins, so he called the police.

Fiscal depute Karen Poke said the estimated total cost of the damage to the vehicles was £550.