A serial shoplifter who took two children along while he committed crimes was told it was a form of abuse that could lead them into a life of crime.
Steven Jamie McDonald used a child’s pushchair to conceal more than £100 of stolen items in two shoplifting offences at Kingsway West Retail Park.
McDonald stole wireless Playstation controllers from Currys and Tesco on May 27 and 30.
Sitting at Dundee Sheriff Court, Sheriff Alistair Brown told him the fact he had two children in tow was a serious aggravating factor.
Depute fiscal Kirsty Urquhart said: “The accused had a young child in the store and was pushing a buggy and walking with another child.
“He was seen to discard a Sony Playstation box and it was found it had no controller inside.
“CCTV was reviewed in which the accused was seen to pick up the box, place it in the pram and leave the store.”
Ms Urquhart said that on May 30 in Tesco: “He was seen at the console display picking up a controller box with controller inside.
“He took it out of the box and concealed it in the pram. CCTV showed him carrying out the offence.”
There was no recovery in either case.
McDonald, 24, of Dens Road, Dundee, appeared for sentence for those offences on Wednesday, along with another two shop-lifting offences in the Overgate on August 3 and October 22.
The court heard he had stashed DVDs down his trousers at Argos and tried to take a Porsche hard drive from a display at Stormfront.
Defence solicitor Theo Finlay said McDonald had been “leading a completely directionless life” and that the children were not his.
Sentencing McDonald, Sheriff Brown said: “Theft by shoplifting may seem trivial to you, but taking a child shoplifting, whether to give you cover or for any other purpose, is something I regard as especially serious. It is abuse of the child and, depending on the age of the child, could teach them to become a criminal.”
Sheriff Brown placed McDonald on a community payback order, banned him from Dundee city centre, placed him under supervision for a year and instructed him to attend a three-month mentoring programme.
A review was fixed for March 4.