A ROBBER who callously targeted a 74-year-old woman in Port Glasgow in a drug-fuelled attack has been spared prison — and handed 90 hours of unpaid work.

James Harvey, 45, left the elderly pensioner 'shaken' as he ran off with the contents of her purse after 'offering to assist her' at a cash machine.

Harvey committed the shocking broad daylight robbery at Dubbs Road just a month after being given a community-based sentence for other offences.

A sheriff acknowledged that the serial offender — also facing sentence for a spate of shoplifting thefts totalling more than £1,000 — had become a one-man 'crimewave'.

But lawman Neil Kinnear decided not to jail Harvey after hearing that he is an 'intelligent man' who previously led a productive family life before sliding into drug abuse.

Sheriff Kinnear said: "I'm rather reluctant to jail him if he has potential, and that is in society's interests."

Harvey had become the target of 'reprisals' in the community since the April 2020 robbery, Greenock Sheriff Court was told.

He has been assaulted twice and sustained a fractured skull in one of those attacks, the court heard.

Defence lawyer Rhona Lynch described the robbery as a non-violent 'opportunist crime' to feed a drug habit.

Ms Lynch said: "It is accepted that this is a serious matter and Mr Harvey is deeply remorseful for his conduct.

"He was under the influence of substances at the time.

"This was a desperate opportunist crime."

Harvey had been placed on a community payback order with three years supervision the month prior to the robbery.

He got into a taxi with his elderly victim after asking her for a cigarette and followed her to an ATM at Dubbs Road before swiping her money.

The OAP — who had lifted £150 — put her bag down after deciding to catch a bus into Greenock and Harvey seized his chance to grab her purse.

Solicitor Ms Lynch said that her client had stayed out of trouble for 18 years after moving to Ireland, starting his own business, getting married and having a family.

He returned to Greenock after his relationship broke down and 'fell back into drug use', the court heard.

Ms Lynch said: "He is plainly an intelligent man and he wants to turn his life around.

"In all of the circumstances I invite the court to consider and alternative to custody here.

"He is by no means a lost cause and has a great deal of potential."

Sheriff Kinnear said: "Jail would terminate the existing [community payback] order that seems to be working."

The sheriff told Harvey: "You are perhaps a little unusual. Unlike some who appear in these courts you are quite an intelligent man.

"You have had in the past a normal, productive life with work and a family.

"Drug use triggered a crimewave to fund that habit.

"A sheriff in March [of 2020] took the view that jail would perpetuate that cycle.

"I don't seek to minimise the matter, however, it appears to have been opportunistic whereby you grabbed the money and ran.

"It would be very easy to send you to prison, and I am reluctant to do that."

Sheriff Kinnear imposed a community payback order, comprising three years supervision with a drug and alcohol treatment requirement and 90 hours of unpaid work.

The sheriff also imposed an electronic tagging curfew confining Harvey, of Moidart Road in the Port, to his home between 7pm and 7am each day for 12 months.

The sheriff has ordered 'regular' progress reviews, the first of which is set for October 19.

Sentence on eight shoplifting matters, totalling £1,015.23, has been deferred until then.