A Fife man, who went into his local shop looking for a bag of sugar on credit, walked out with £900.
“Tick” customer Raymond Gordon helped himself to a large sum of money that a shop assistant had been cashing up in front of him.
However, Gordon was well known to the staff, who went to his home nearby and managed to retrieve the stolen cash from him.
The bizarre incident resulted in an appearance at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for Gordon, 45, whose address was given as Dundonald Park, Cardenden.
He admitted that on June 13 this year at the Londis store in Dundonald Park he stole £900.
Depute fiscal Dev Kapadia said Gordon had gone to the store at 6.10pm when one of the employees was cashing up the takings.
“He approached her and asked for a bag of sugar on ‘tick’,” added the fiscal.
“She said she would have to speak to the owner. When she came back through, he had gone – as had £900 from the till.”
As they knew where to find Gordony, the shop assistant and the shop owner then went to the accused’s home and asked for the money back.
Gordon admitted he had stolen the money and returned it to them.
Defence solicitor Martin McGuire said the money had in fact been left on the counter and had not been taken from the till.
He added that his client had a background of substance misuse and that “his mental health was relatively poor at the time”.
Sheriff Craig McSherry deferred sentence until February 22 for Gordon to be of good behaviour.