A prolific shoplifter who filled his trousers with vodka during raids on a string of shops over three weeks has been jailed for almost three years.
Ryan Ogilvie, 31, admitted 15 charges of shoplifting and making death threats to store staff during the crime spree in July.
Depute fiscal Charmaine Gilmartin told Perth Sheriff Court that Ogilvie – who has 72 previous convictions – particularly targeted supermarket vodka and aftershave.
Ogilvie stole more than 40 bottles of vodka and was caught leaving several stores with a pair of bottles stuffed down his trousers.
He regularly set off the store alarms by walking out the fire exits and issued threats of violence to security staff who tackled him.
Ogilvie robbed the same branch of Sainsbury’s in Tom Johnston Road, Dundee, eight times between July 6-26.
He also stole items from B&M Bargains, Marks and Spencer, Boots and Asda branches in Dundee.
Solicitor Ross Donnelly, defending, said: “He has been committing offences of this nature on a regular basis throughout much of his adult life.
“At the time of these offences he was in the grip of a particularly voracious opiate addiction. He has struggled with that for much of his adult life.
“Such was the grip that his desperation was such that he was almost indifferent as to whether or not he would be detected.
“No real attempt or thought was given to how this would be committed. He was almost literally walking in, picking things up, and walking out again.”
Sheriff Pino di Emidio jailed Ogilvie for 137 weeks and said: “You are guilty of a series of offences covering a relatively short period of time.
“In total there were a considerable number of theft by shoplifting offences. You also partially pulled out a knife and I treat that with more seriousness.”
