Drongan lout spared jail - again.

Nov 13 2009 Ayrshire Post (main ed)

A LOUT with a string of convictions has been spared jail – again.

Teenager Gary Mitchell has been causing havoc in his community for months.

His latest antics saw Mitchell smashing a shop window - while he was on probation and a good behaviour order.

But although he was able to walk free from Ayr Sheriff Court this week, Mitchell was given a dressing down by a sheriff who warned that he was running out of patience.

Mitchell’s convictions include spitting on a teenager at Somerset Park, launching water balloons at a moving car and jumping up and down on a car until he’d caused so much damage to the body work that it was written off.

Last month Mitchell, of Drongan’s Sinclairston Drive, pleaded guilty to smashing a window at the Best Food Takeaway in Glencraig Street in Drongan on June 20 this year.

Defence lawyer Peter Lockhart pointed out that by committing the latest offence, Mitchell had breached probation and breached a good behaviour order issued by the court earlier this year.

Mr Lockhart went on to tell the court that 18-year-old Mitchell is attending Turning Point to address his alcohol problem.

Sheriff Jack McGowan deferred sentence on the yob until next month for him to be of good behaviour.

And he asked that jobless Mitchell’s probation is continued in the hope that he will change his ways.

But Sheriff McGowan told him: “You are rapidly running out of chances.

“My patience can only be stretched so far. You’ll be back here next month but you better live very quietly in the meantime.”