A serial hot tub thief has been jailed for more than three-and-a-half years after repeatedly breaking into sheds and stealing inflatable spa baths.
Andrew Pattie was already in hot water when he started his three-week theft spree after being caught dealing drugs from his flat in Dundee.
At one stage he was spotted carting his haul around the city in a wheelie bin and told one onlooker: “I’m on the tan.”
Weeks before his spree last November, Pattie was found dealing heroin from the flat in Hilltown Court he had shared with his partner before her fatal overdose.
Cops investigating the death found more than £30,000 of heroin and evidence Pattie had been dealing from the property.
After being bailed, Pattie carried out nine thefts in three weeks across Dundee — stealing three hot tubs as well as an Elvis magazine, Beatles memorabilia and a coin collection.
Pattie was caught after a glove containing his DNA was found at the scene where he had dumped one of the hot tubs.
A sheriff asked Pattie’s lawyer: “Has he found a ready market for hot tubs?”
Solicitor David Duncan replied: “He may well have done.”
Pattie, 25, a prisoner at Perth, pleaded guilty to nine theft charges, committed in November 2017, and being concerned in the supply of heroin on September 11 last year.
Sheriff Alastair Brown jailed Pattie for a total of three years and seven months.
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