Wick woman who failed to even start work order is given jail warning

A Wick woman has been warned that she is likely to face a jail sentence if she doesn’t toe the line with her unpaid community service.

Sheriff Neil Wilson took Emma Campbell to task after she breached the work order and requested it be revoked and a fine put in its place.

Wick Sheriff Court was told on Monday, that Campbell (40) had not started the work and had failed to contact her social worker to arrange an appointment for the induction process.

An 80-hour order and a year-long driving ban was imposed after she previously admitted having driven with 600 mcg of benzoylecgonine, more than 13 times the legal limit of 50 mcg. The accused was stopped by police in Burn Street, Wick, on May 18, and failed a roadside drug test.

Campbell’s solicitor, Jose Donnachie, said that the accused, of Seaforth Avenue, Wick, had been “struggling with an anxiety issue” which had prevented her beginning her unpaid work.

Sheriff Wilson told Campbell, who admitted breaching the work order, that she could consider herself fortunate the sentence imposed for her drug-driving charge offence – by a different sheriff – had not been “considerably more severe”.

He told her: “You didn’t attend any of your work appointments... including the induction one,” and went on: “The work order will not be revoked but if you don’t comply with it, it will be revoked and you will be travelling in one direction [to prison].”