A father-of-two was forced to steal a digger from a Perthshire building site after money lenders threatened his family.
Stuart Nowrie was handed keys to the machine and given instructions where to transport it to, after he was unable to pay back his outstanding £8,000 debt.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the 39-year-old agreed to uplift the vehicle and hide it in woodlands after crooks sent him a photo of his parents.
Nowrie, from Fife, appeared in the dock and admitted stealing from the £4million construction site on April 18 2022.
It happened weeks before he led police on a cocaine-fuelled chase through Angus and Fife, before ploughing his truck into a private garden.
Lied about buying digger
Prosecutor Duncan McKenzie told the court the digger was owned by the GAP plant hire firm.
“On the afternoon of April 18, an employee had been using the vehicle at Pigeon Row, which at the time was a building site on the edge of Crieff.
“When his shift ended at about 1.30pm, he secured the digger before leaving the site.
“Around this time, other witnesses in the area noticed two males in a Ford Transit van nearby.
“They saw the vehicle drive off but didn’t pay too much attention to it because it was a large and busy site.”
Mr McKenzie said: “At about 6.20pm, a witness at Pigeon Row saw the transit van with a pick-up trailer attached.
“He observed two men loading the digger onto the trailer.
“The witnesses approached the males and asked what they were doing.
“They said they had just purchased the digger and were taking it away.”
The construction worker who had been using the machine returned to the site the next morning.
When he noticed the digger was missing, he called the police.
Mr McKenzie said the vehicle was later found by police in woodlands near Thornton, Fife.
“It was about 100 yards from the road and was covered in tarpaulin to hide it from view,” he said.
Nowrie was tracked down after traces of his DNA were found in the cab.
Debt
Solicitor Pauline Cullerton, defending, said: “Mr Nowrie had a debt due of about £8,000.
“He was unable to pay back this money but he was provided with the keys to the vehicle and told to transport it to a specific location.”
She said: “Threats were made to him and a photo of his parents were sent to him by those he owned the debt to.”
Ms Cullerton said her client was due to begin work as a groundskeeper.
Sheriff Eric Brown placed Nowrie on supervision for 10 months and ordered him to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work.
The sentence was imposed as a direct alternative to custody, the sheriff said.
Jailed for Cardenden crash
Nowrie was previously jailed for careering his truck into a Fife garden following a dramatic police chase.
He had been high on cocaine when he led cops on a 45-minute dash from Blairhall to Cardenden, taking in three separate council zones.
The chase ended when he drove his flatbed truck through a garden fence.
Nowrie, of Leighton Street, High Valleyfield, was jailed for 18 months when the case called at Stirling Sheriff Court in November 2022.
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