A COURT has been told how Angus Kennedy kicked a vehicle in Galashiels’ St Andrew’s Street on May 5 – causing the wing mirror to fall to the ground and smash.

He then picked it up, put it in a bag, and made off with it.

However, when police caught up with him at nearby Gala Water Retail Park, he began shouting and swearing at officers and trying to fight with them.

Twenty-five-year-old Kennedy also admitted approaching, or attempting to approach a woman in Galashiels on May 30 last year – despite a court order, granted earlier that month, forbidding it.

Selkirk Sheriff Court heard he arrived at her address “intoxicated” and banged on her door.

When she didn’t answer after 15 minutes, he left and began repeatedly calling and texting her until she blocked his number.

Prosecutor India McLean said he then returned to the property and attempted to get in the front door and the woman called the police.

Sheriff Janys Scott warned Kennedy – who also pleaded guilty to a breach of his curfew – he was “close” to being jailed.

But she noted he had been granted a new tenancy in Young Street, Peebles, and had a chance for a fresh start, after a background report highlighted difficulties he’d had with drugs and alcohol.

She instead placed him on a high-tariff structured deferred sentence for the next six weeks – where he will be under the supervision of social workers. The case will recall on March 18.