Jail for man who used stolen car in Perthshire murder bid
- Published
Charlie Tunstall tried to murder four men at a Perthshire garage
A driver who used the stolen car to try and murder four men at a Perthshire garage forecourt has been jailed for nine years.
Charlie Tunstall, 25, repeatedly reversed the VW Golf GTI at mechanics and struck one victim with the vehicle at the premises in Birnam.
At the High Court in Edinburgh Tunstall denied attempted murder but he was convicted by a jury after a trial.
Judge Lord Mulholland told him: "Your conduct that day was despicable".
He said one of Tunstall's victims was seriously hurt and his injuries would have a "long lasting" effect on him.
Tunstall's sentence will begin at the end of a six year jail term he is currently serving, which was imposed in 2019 for conspiracy to rob in England.
Lord Mullholland warned him that he would spend a substantial part of his adult life in prison if he did not mend his ways.
Tunstall was found guilty of attempting to murder Ewan Burt, Robert and Owen McMahon and Robert MacDonald on January 14 in 2019 at Bob's Mechanical Repairs, at Perth Road, Birnam.
Robert McMahon, 42, told the earlier trial that the vehicle had come into the premises and an inquiry was made about paying for fuel with cash.
After Tunstall learnt that it was card payments only at the petrol pumps, which were a separate business, he became verbally abusive and then began reversing the car aggressively.
Mr Burt was struck by the Golf driven by Tunstall and thrown backwards into the air and landed on concrete.
He was left bleeding from head injuries and one of his colleagues said his eyes were rolled back and his tongue was hanging out.
Jurors were shown footage of the car attack, which was captured on CCTV, during his trial.
False registration plates
Mr McMahon said that after Mr Burt was struck by the vehicle there was a lot of blood. He said: "I thought he was seconds from death."
The victim was treated for head wounds, which were stitched and sutured, but had no memory of the events that led to him being injured.
Tunstall was identified as the perpetrator of the attack by several witnesses. The Golf had false registration plates when it was used in the murder bid and was seen minutes later at a filling station in Perth with different fake plates.
The court heard that the car was stolen in the Enfield area of London in November 2018 and later recovered in Waltham Forest in February 2019 with a dent on the boot lid.
Ronnie Renucci KC, for Tunstall, said that he continued to deny involvement in the attempted murder. He said: "It is his position that this case is a case of mistaken identity."
The defence counsel said there was no planning involved in the offence and added: "This was not a case where people were going out looking for trouble."
Mr Renucci that Tunstall had "an unfortunate background" and although it was not an excuse perhaps gave an indication as to how he came to be on the path his life has taken.