A Perth shopkeeper has been cleared of selling stolen goods following a police raid on his city centre premises.
Officers swooped on second-hand store Trading Places and seized more than 100 items, believed to have been shoplifted from local outlets.
Company director Robert Shepherd was charged with reset after the police operation in October 2020.
The 59-year-old was accused of having a range of gardening tools, dog products, cosmetics, beauty items, household appliances, art supplies, books, jewellery, sporting equipment and tools that had been “dishonestly appropriated by theft by shoplifting”.
Prosecutors accused Mr Shepherd of selling the stock at his South Street store and via an eBay account linked to the shop, between January 1 2018 and October 7 2020.
Mr Shepherd denied the charge and was found not guilty following a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Francis Gill acquitted the Milnathort businessman after hearing five out of eight other employees at the store also had responsibility for buying and selling items from customers.
Mr Shepherd insisted robust measures were in place to spot and halt sales of stolen goods.
The sheriff told him: “It is important to notice you were prosecuted as an individual, albeit as a director of the business.
“The Crown case is that you were wilfully blind as to how these items came to be in your store.
“By way of inference, the evidence from the Crown supports that position.”
Sheriff Gill said Mr Shepherd’s own testimony was “credible and reliable”.
He added: “I am therefore not satisfied that the Crown has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt and so I find you not guilty of the charge.”
Stolen from High Street store
Mr Shepherd was on a business trip to Aberdeen when officers visited his store, the trial heard.
PC Scott Burrell told the court he was called to Boots in Perth’s High Street to investigate the theft of two electric razors on October 4 2020.
He said a senior staff member showed him on her phone an eBay account linked to Trading Places, which was advertising the same items.
PC Burrell visited the shop and asked to see some of the items.
“The accused (Mr Shepherd) was out of town but I spoke to him on the phone,” he said.
“I told him we were at the shop, looking for stolen items.
“He was very pleasant and accommodating and said he would assist us in any way he could.”
The officer checked the shop’s records and became suspicious about several repeat customers.
More than 100 items were later seized from the stock room.
“Because of the volume they had to be photographed by a scenes of crime officer,” he said.
A team of six officers took four hours to search the premises.
Experienced retailer
Mr Shepherd told his trial the shop had been operating since 2014 and its second hand dealer licence was renewed by the council every three years without issue.
He told solicitor Ramsay Hall: “I’ve been in this business for 24 years and I’ve never had any customer come in and tell us ‘this item I’m selling, it’s been stolen’.
“And I’ve never had a police officer come in and tell us ‘don’t buy from this person, because they are a thief’.
“The only time we find out if something has been stolen is when police arrive to retrieve it.”
He said many items in the stock room and online were brand new and still in their packaging because the store buys from auctions, suppliers and other businesses, as well as walk-in customers.
Mr Shepherd, whose address was listed as Trading Places, said a stopping order is placed on any customer who is caught trying to sell stolen goods.
Depute fiscal Andrew Harding, prosecuting, claimed Mr Shepherd had “turned a blind eye” and had “guilty knowledge” that some of the 2,000 items on sale were stolen.
Mr Hall, defending, argued: “There is no evidence that Mr Shepherd knew the items had been acquired by theft.
“Mr Shepherd gave evidence that he had never purchased an item which he knew to be stolen.”
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