A RETIRING Dumbarton sheriff has quoted Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous film character, The Terminator, after presiding over his last cases at the town’s sheriff court.

Sheriff Simon Pender retired last week after spending more than 15 years dispensing justice at Dumbarton Sheriff Court.

Court staff, local defence lawyers and prosecutors from the Dumbarton procurator fiscal’s office gathered to say farewell after the sheriff presided over his final cases on Friday morning.

Solicitor Tom Brown, from Dumbarton and Alexandria law firm Cairns Brown, speaking on behalf of the Faculty of Solicitors of Dunbartonshire, told Sheriff Pender: “You have been here for 15 years, and I’ve been here throughout that time.

“I’ve always found you to be a fair sheriff - not soft, I could never say that, but certainly fair.

“If I had a point to make, you always allowed me to make it - you didn’t always agree with it, but I was always able to argue my point, and from a defence solicitor’s point of view, that’s very important indeed.”

Read more: Bankie couple who found love on Facebook group celebrate third wedding anniversary

Schooled in Helensburgh, Sheriff Pender spent four and a half years as a temporary sheriff before being appointed to a full-time post in Hamilton in September 1999.

He has been one of the permanent judges in the Dumbarton sheriffdom - which stretches from Clydebank, Bearsden and Milngavie in the east, through Dumbarton and the Vale, to Helensburgh, the Rosneath peninsula, Arrochar and the west shore of Loch Lomond - since May 2004.

Sheriff Pender said: “It has been a pleasure to preside in Dumbarton Sheriff Court - I have enjoyed my time here and I am sorry to be leaving.”

Though no longer a full-time judge, Sheriff Pender will continue as a part-time “floating” sheriff, presiding over cases at various Scottish courts.

“I have been given a commission to continue temporarily, on and off,” he continued, “and so, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: I’ll be back.”