11:01 am, July 11, 2024
The bosses of a Scottish car dealership have avoided jail for a brutal ‘revenge attack’ on a vandal who caused thousands of pounds of damage to vehicles on their forecourt.
Car Dealer reported back in May how father-and-son team Gordon and Morgan Murray took matters into their own hands when Roberto Tudora was captured on camera pouring paint stripper onto cars at their Murray Motors showroom in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire.
The pair are to said have gone to the 38-year-old’s nearby home and ‘battered him’ on his own doorstep.
Unfortunately for Gordon, 66, and Morgan, 32, the attack was heard by police after Tudora dialled 999.
In a separate 999 call, a neighbour told police that the duo had ‘ripped out’ their victim’s home security cameras before attempting to ‘do in’ Tudora.
They were found guilty of the attack after a trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court and have now returned to the dock to be sentenced.
During the hearing, Sheriff Craig Findlater hit out at the car dealers for ‘taking things into your own hands’ and not ‘leaving it to the authorities’.
He added that Gordon Murray was a man of ‘considerable’ means and handed him a £6,350 fine. His son was hit with a financial penalty of £2,575.
The ruling came after Gordon Murray’s defence agent, Leonard Birkenshaw, claimed that his client’s business had suffered ‘damage’ as a result of the case.
John MacLeod, representing Morgan Murray, said his client ‘wants to put this behind him’ ahead of his upcoming marriage.
How the incident unfolded
Car Dealer reported three years ago that a vandal had broken into Murray Motors and was caught on camera damaging several vehicles.
Tudora was later named as the culprit and sentenced to 150 hours of community service for the crime, following a plea deal which involved the damage being downgraded from £100,000 to £33,000.
However, on April 2, 2021 – just a week after the incident at the dealership – the Murrays arrived at his home to carry out their retribution.
They pair were later arrested and appeared in court for a jury trial earlier this year.
A charge of striking Tudora on the head with a hammer was initially put forward before being deleted, the Press and Journal reports.
Also deleted were allegations that the pair repeatedly stamped on the victim’s body and hit with him with a metal pole.
Speaking during the trial, Ruairidh McAllister, prosecuting, told the court: ‘Roberto Tudora is no angel, but time and time again his account ties in with other evidence we have heard.
‘It makes sense. Unlike the stories being spun by these two men – stories they have made up after events to explain away what they were doing in that house that day.’
