Trio who stormed Highland home and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage are sentenced
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Three men who stormed into a house and caused over £7000 worth of damage have been sentenced.
Windows were broken, a TV was thrown into the garden, vents removed from walls and ceilings, with gas and water pipes pulled from their fixings.
Toilet fittings were also ripped off the walls and the council flat in Harrow Hill, Wick was badly water damaged in the late night disturbance on May 23 this year, Inverness Sheriff Court heard at a previous hearing.
Only the master bedroom was untouched.
Two men escaped jail sentences but the third received a custodial sentence but backdated to July 27.
A minor role plus an "excellent" reference from the boss of 23-year-old Patrick Stewart of Ord Road, Marybank, kept him out of jail.
He was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
His co-accused, 23-year-old first offender James Alexander of Cliff Cottages, Papigoe, Wick also avoided prison.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson told him: "You have no previous convictions and it is a great pity you got embroiled in this matter. I hope this is a lesson learned for you."
He was instructed to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
However 22-year-old Morgan Stubbings of East End, Wick, who admitted a previous record, was jailed for 12 months.
But it should be completed early in the New Year.
Stewart admitted charges of threatening behaviour and theft of a debit card from the flat occupier who escaped through a window before the rampage. He also admitted malicious damage, as did Stubbings and Alexander.
Fiscal depute Karen Aitken said police were quickly on the scene and found the trio inside. Stewart also pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour towards the officers. Mrs Aitken added that Stubbings told police that the occupier was supposed to repay him £50 a day.
Stubbings alone faced a charge of making a threatening phone call to a 19-year-old woman living in Wick with violence and demanding money. Police who had been attending the house on another matter, overheard the threats when the woman put the call on loudspeaker.
