A prolific thief stole more than £13,500 worth of alcohol and power tools during 13 raids on supermarkets and garages in a four-month spree.
Scott Ney was jailed for two years after he admitted carrying out numerous repeated raids on branches of Tesco, Morrisons and Asda in Dundee.
Ney, 31, from Dundee, brazenly picked up hundreds of pounds worth of luxury spirits and simply fled through the stores’ fire exits.
He stole two Shark vacuum cleaners worth £400 during the first robbery on November 25 2022 and more than £1,000 of alcohol during the following month.
By January 2023 he had turned to targeting garages – including Skoda and BMW – and eventually amassed a haul of 46 power tools worth £11,525.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told drug addict Ney was repeatedly captured on CCTV footage and was caught after leaving a crowbar with his DNA on it at the scene of his final raid on April 19.
Ney admitted 13 charges of housebreaking and theft.
Solicitor Theo Finlay, defending, said: “The last two or three years has marked quite a sharp descent into quite prolific offending.
“He was previously in a long-term relationship and the break-up was quite acrimonious.
“It seems to have affected him emotionally and mentally and has led to significant drug misuse and a pattern of destructive behaviour.”
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown noted Ney’s record for similar previous offending and told him that a custodial sentence was inevitable because of the number of crimes involved.
‘Monstrous’ rapist jailed
A vicious rapist from Carnoustie has been handed a life sentence. Scott Gall was found guilty of rape, sexual coercion, fireraising and life-endangering assaults in January 2023. A judge branded his crimes “cruel, inhuman and monstrous”.
Scratch card con
A lottery conman who stole a winning scratch card for his partner to cash in has been sent to prison for eight months.
Jason Hunter was jailed after he admitted stealing nearly 100 of the National Lottery cards, including the winner which was cashed in.
Julie McNulty used the stolen card to claim a £20 win as part of a crime spree which saw items worth more than £7,000 being stolen.
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown told Hunter, 54, that she was taking into account the period he had been on remand by backdating his sentence to February last year.
McNulty, 54, had sentence deferred for the preparation of a reports.
She admitted using tickets her accomplice had stolen in a smash and grab at the Spar on Perth Road in Dundee on February 19 last year.
After the 89 scratch cards were taken, she cashed in the winner at Tesco on Murraygate the same day.
The court as told that the robbery and lottery con was part of a crime spree being carried out by the pair during February last year.
Jobless Hunter used a bank card stolen from a car to try to buy £18 worth of items at Shell Discovery on East Marketgait on February 19
Hunter had also stolen airpod headphones, a bag containing jackets, a wallet containing debit and credit cards, sunglasses and £120 cash from the car.
He also raided a house in the city’s Old Glamis Road between February 19 and 22 and made off with items worth around £7,500.
Unemployed McNulty admitted resetting the stolen items on February 23.
The pair were rumbled when police officers carried out a raid on a property in Union Street that day.
They discovered a number of items in a bag, including those from the car, which had been parked on Shepherds Loan, Dundee.
McNulty, now of Weir Street, Castleford, England, admitted fraud using stolen scratch cards and the reset of stolen goods.
Hunter, from Dundee, appeared from custody, having been remanded from the time of his arrest in February. He admitted theft and reset charges.
Street valium dealer
A Fife man was busted dealing more than 48,000 street Valium pills after two police raids in Methil less than four months apart. Jon Cassidy, 44, was caught supplying the drugs from a lock-up garage in Turner Crescent and an address in the High Street.
Van thief
A serial car thief who attacked a police officer after crashing a stolen Transit van during a high speed pursuit has been banned from driving for 12 months.
Guy Weston was also placed on a curfew for two months when appeared via video link for sentencing at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Weston had a stolen motorbike in the back of the van and smashed into a concrete bollard before making off on foot and then scrapping with police.
The court was told that 40-year-old Weston has 12 previous convictions for stealing cars and had spent the equivalent of a 17-month sentence on remand.
The van was fitted with a tracker, so police were able to find it, sparking a high speed chase through Dundee.
Weston drove off from the crash scene for a short period before getting out of the van and clambering over a fence into a garden to hide.
He admitted stealing a van, motorbike and trailer on April 22, before driving dangerously and at speed – while banned and without insurance – the following day.
He admitted assaulting a police officer by striking him with a door and trying to punch him as he was chased down a communal close.
Solicitor Jim Laverty, defending, said: “For a period before this he was doing well in the community and was drug free.
“He was, unfortunately, the victim of an unprovoked serious attack.
“After that he became extremely anxious, had post traumatic stress and was self-medicating.”
Post-drugs binge attack
A Dundee woman has admitted a savage assault on a friend following a drugs binge at her home. Michaela Pattie appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court to admit severely injuring and permanently disfiguring the woman in October 2019.
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