Man who couldn't find taxi stole horse

A man in a rush to get home after a night out decided he couldn’t wait for a taxi to take him home, so he stole a horse. Ronald Temprell, 25, took the horse from a farm, two-and-a-half miles from his home, but was caught after the sound of its hooves alerted neighbours. He saddled up on the horse stabled at Tulliallan Farms, near Alloa, early on May 11.
But at about 2.10am, neighbours called police after hearing the horse clopping down the road and spotting him riding it while two other men walked side-by-side. Temprell, who has been given a one-year commumity payback order for the offence, says he now wants to learn from the experience. He added: “I think I first fell in love with horses when I watched Black Beauty.

“I’ve always loved them really. On the night I took that one, I had been drinking and it did seem funny. I wanted to get home, but I’m not going to bump a taxi, so we were walking and came across the horses. As I knew about how to get the stuff on, I just started to saddle it up. It took me about an hour and a half. I could probably do it faster when I’m sober.”

Police traced Temprell from CCTV footage. Defending, Alistair Burleigh said: “He accepts he took the horse a relatively short distance home, but he sent it back on its way. It was a theft, but not on a permanent basis.” At Alloa Sheriff Court, Sheriff David Mackie sentenced Temprell, of the town’s Mill Street, to the payback order and instructed him to to attend alcohol counselling.