A crook behind a series of thefts of work vans, tools and machinery in Perthshire and west Stirlingshire has been jailed.
Stephen Dunn, 42, was caught after police found a bloodstained door handle on a lockup garage in Braco, Perthshire.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard that the owner of the Millhill Road garage had been disturbed by his home alarm going off in the night.
He woke, silenced the alarm, and checked his house, but not the garage.
The next morning two chainsaws worth £500 each were found to be missing from the lockup.
The blood on the doorhandle was profiled and found to be Dunn’s.
Van thefts
The incident occurred on August 12th 2019, the court heard.
Three days later, Dunn was involved in the theft of a Ford Transit van worth nearly £7,000 from outside a house in Braemar Avenue, Dunblane.
Police were called after a neighbour spotted two men stealing the van in the night.
The vehicle was later found abandoned, with Dunn’s DNA on the steering wheel.
The court heard that that earlier the same month – at around 2am on August 5 2019 – Dunn and another man, who has not been identified, were spotted on CCTV involved in the theft of another Transit van, this time loaded with plumbing tools, from heating engineers J&K Muir in Glasgow Road, Blanefield, west Stirlingshire.
Prosecutor Michael Sweeney said the van had vanished by the time staff arrived for work at 8am.
‘Course of conduct’
A dozen old copper water tanks, which had been stacked at the side of the plumbers’ workshop, were also missing.
Mr Sweeney told the court: “It appeared these had been loaded into the van.”
Mr Sweeney said the van was later recovered, but was damaged and had to be written off.
The total value of the items taken in the Blanefield raid, including the van, was around £9,000.
Appearing by video link from custody, Dunn, single and unemployed, of Maryhill, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to three charges of theft.
Jailing him for 26 months, Sheriff Keith O’Mahony told Dunn he had a lengthy record of previous convictions, including for analogous matters.
The sheriff told him: “These three charges in essence amount to a course of conduct.”
