A thief had his sentence deferred to April 3 for him to be of good behaviour when he appeared before Sheriff Alastair Carmichael.
Corneliu Niedl, 32, of Dens Road, admitted that on February 19 at Boots, Reform Street, he stole nine bottles of aftershave, and on February 26 at the same store, he stole six bottles of perfume.
Fiscal depute Laura Bruce told the court that on both occasions, Niedl was seen placing the items into a foil-lined bag.
On each occasion, the items cost a total of £614. Ms Bruce added that on March 4, Niedl was seen to enter the store and staff alerted police, who arrested him.
Solicitor Nicola Brown said that Niedl, who is a Romanian national, had been in Scotland for about a month, having come up from England with the promise of a job here, which did not materialise.
She said he lived with another Romanian friend who was gainfully employed, but the accused couldn’t get a job and had no money to pay his rent.
Ms Brown added that Niedl had the offer of a job in Fife and suggested the sheriff could defer sentence for four weeks to see if that job materialised and for him to return to court with £200 towards making recompense.
Sheriff Carmichael agreed and told Niedl he wanted him to prove that he was usually of good character and should bring the sum to court with him at his next appearance.
He said: “You are a first offender. You should view this as being a test. If you fail, then I will not be able to deal with this leniently.”
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.