Man appears in court over Victoria Park stunt which puts lights out
Jake Wheelans at Victoria Park where a black Audi car was seen doing wheelspins on Saturday afternoon on the rugby pitch.
A DRIVER has appeared in court accused of damaging Selkirk Youth Club’s Victoria Park pitch.
Appearing from custody at Peebles Sheriff Court, Robert Mason from Penrhiwllan in Wales faces a total of eight different charges.
Among them is a charge of driving without due care and attention on Saturday, after the 21-year-old is alleged to have driven across Victoria Park and performed a series of wheelspins.
In addition, he was charged with threatening police and possession of cannabis following the incident.
Youth Club officials have been left counting the cost of the Victoria Park stunt, which has forced its floodlight switch-on ceremony tomorrow to be postponed.
Youth Club treasurer Jake Wheelans said: “They’ve messed up the bottom of the field. They’ve done many wheelie turns on it.
“We’ve never had bother in the park. This is the most damage I’ve seen in 30 years. I’m just disgusted.”
The cost of the new training lights ran into thousands of pounds, with a generous donation from the estate of the late Alan Waldron assisting the funding target.
Alan’s wife Fiona cut the first sod in October as work began, with players, committee members and volunteers putting in hours of their spare time to dig trenches and install wiring before the lighting poles were erected.
Mr Wheelans added: “This is a public park, a Common Good park. The Common Good is going to be charged by the council to fix it.”
A witness managed to catch the culprit in the act with photographic evidence of the incident.
He told The Wee Paper: “It happened between 4pm and 4.30pm. He came and just did two massive spins on where a new practice pitch is going to be, and the existing pitch.
“They were really deeply rutted. They’re going to have to be rolled to get them back into order. It was a stupid thing to do.”
Mason has also been charged with dangerous driving following a collision on the Selkirk to St Boswells road on Monday, in which he and a 19-year-old passenger from Newcastle were cut out of their vehicle.
Both men were taken to Borders General Hospital with minor head injuries and the A699 was shut for five hours.
Mason also faces a charge of possessing cannabis while attempting to recover his crashed car from a garage in Lauder on the same day.
And he is also charged with driving while unfit through drink or drugs last October in Selkirk and possession of cannabis at the same time.
He denied all eight charges and was granted bail by Sheriff Kevin Drummond. Mason is now due to appear at Selkirk Sheriff Court on March 18.
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Weather for Selkirk
Monday 20 May 2013
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Light showers
Temperature: 8 C to 18 C
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Wind direction: North east
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