A hospital employee who wielded an axe to destroy a parking meter in retaliation for multiple fines has been ordered to pay £600.
Furious driver Myles Bancroft demolished the meter with an axe after finding several tickets on his car parked outside his residence.
Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith remarked, “Unfortunately, this incident will generate some publicity due to its nature, and your employers may consider it gross misconduct.
“This was a grave incident. It undoubtedly caused alarm to the individual who recorded your actions. You assaulted the machine.
“While I grasp your reasons for directing your anger at the machine, there were alternatives to wrecking the parking meter.”
A bystander caught Bancroft, 39, exiting his house with the axe, swinging it, and then proceeding to obliterate the council’s parking meter.
Prosecutor Larissa Milligan informed Dundee Sheriff Court: “This parking meter belongs to the council. At about 9 am, the accused emerged from a building on Perth Road brandishing an axe.
“It was a single-blade axe with a long wooden handle. He swung it by his side before repeatedly hitting the parking meter with it, damaging it.
“A passer-by began filming the event on their phone. The police were alerted, retrieved the footage, and identified the accused.”
Bancroft, of Perth Road, Dundee, confessed to willfully or recklessly destroying property by attacking a parking meter with an axe. He also admitted to possessing an offensive weapon in the Mill Wynd Car park on September 11, 2023.
His lawyer, John Boyle, stated: “He lives adjacent to the car park and uses it frequently. He struggles with alcohol addiction and has been off work for some time.
“He is a gardener for the NHS Trust. He had been sober for a considerable time, but relapsed the previous week and was intoxicated.
“That week, he accumulated several parking tickets because he was drinking at home and neglected the parking meter.”
Boyle added that since the incident, Bancroft had abstained from drinking and was seeking treatment for his addiction. He mentioned his client had various debts to settle.
He explained that Bancroft had been away from work at the time of the incident but had since returned, although he is currently formally under investigation and suspended with full pay.
