Probation for Larkhall man found with blade in his possession

Aug 21 2008 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

A MAN caught with a three-inch blade in a residential area of Larkhall was this week given 18 months’ probation.

Robert Pollock, of 14 Glen Avenue, dropped the knife in a Strutherhill garden while being followed by police.

Earlier this year, 37-year-old Pollock had admitted a charge of possessing the weapon at a house in Glen Avenue on June 24, 2007.

However, his not guilty plea to committing a breach of the peace there was accepted by the fiscal depute.

Young children and adults were nearby when the offence took place.

Shortly before 9pm police witnesses saw the accused walking on a footpath in Glen Avenue. The officers in a vehicle approached the accused from behind.

When Pollock turned round and saw the car, he walked faster.

The accused then turned into a garden where he was seen by police witnesses putting his hand into his jacket pocket and removing a brown-handled item.

He dropped it in the garden, and when officers asked him what he had dropped, Pollock replied “nothing.”

The officers, however, found the item to be a brown-handled lock knife with a cutting edge measuring three inches.

Pollock’s agent Elspeth Forrest had told Sheriff Vincent Smith the accused had been on his way to his sister’s house in Glen Avenue and was going to use the knife there.

She recognised that the sheriff would be concerned about the offence, given Pollock’s previous convictions.

Ms Forrest pointed out, however, that the offence had been carried out in the early days of a Drug Treatment and Testing Order and Pollock was making “excellent progress.”

While Sheriff Smith could impose a custodial term, she asked him to defer sentence for background reports and a DTTO review.

At Hamilton Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Sheriff Smith sentenced Pollock to 18-months’ probation, a condition of which was carrying out 80 hours’ community service.