A DUNFERMLINE delivery driver took law into his own hands when he had not been paid before Christmas.

He used a company fuel card to fraudulently obtain more than £1,100 worth of fuel.

As a result, Gavin Kirkcaldy, 29, of Norton Place, appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He admitted that on December 26 and 27, 2017 at the Shell filling station, Admiralty Road, Rosyth, he pretended to staff that he was the authorised user of a company fuel card and obtained £529 worth of fuel.

He also admitted that on December 29, 2017 at Shell Forth Road Bridge services, South Queensferry, he committed the same offence and obtained fuel worth £604 by fraud.

Defence solicitor Stephen Morrison said the offence was “out of character” and was “born out of desperation and frustration”.

He said his client should have been paid around £1,400 in wages, kept being told the money would go in the next day but by Christmas it still had not.

He worked 15 to 16 hours a day as a delivery driver and had a card to pay for fuel for his duties and taking the van back to its depot.

However, he decided to use the card for fuel not to be used for work purposes when he was not paid.

Mr Morrison said: “He got this particularly unwise idea in his head. It clearly got out of hand very quickly and his goose was cooked.”

Sheriff Craig McSherry appeared to be sympathetic to the driver’s plight. He imposed a community payback order with 12 months’ supervision.

He told Kirkcaldy: “If the company wishes to recover this money they can raise a civil action and you could also raise one for the money owed to you.”