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Scottish Parliament thieves take the biscuit and shoes, trainers, money, phones….

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – AUGUST 31: The new debating chamber of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, Edinburgh. The uniquely designed building welcomes the  first of it's many staff,  August 31, 2000. The project designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles has run massively over budget and will enter service next week and be opened by the Queen at a formal ceremony in early October.  (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – AUGUST 31: The new debating chamber of the new Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, Edinburgh. The uniquely designed building welcomes the first of it's many staff, August 31, 2000. The project designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles has run massively over budget and will enter service next week and be opened by the Queen at a formal ceremony in early October. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

A thief took the biscuit actually a whole box of them at the Scottish Parliament.

Another criminal showed a clean pair of heels by making off with a pair of trainers.

The offences are among a series of crimes, many of them bizarre, recorded at Holyrood last year.

Police failed to solve any of the offences, details of which were provided to The Courier in answer to a Freedom of Information request.

Most of the 14 crimes involved the theft of property belonging to MSPs, their staff or Scottish Parliament staff from unlocked or unattended drawers, cupboards or offices.

With access to the parliament tightly controlled all staff and official visitors need security passes and there are airport-type body scanners the pattern suggests a relaxed attitude about guarding possessions once inside.

There was no crumb of evidence in the hunt for the light and maybe chocolate-fingered thief who made off with the unopened large blue box of Fox’s biscuits left sitting on a desk in March last year.

Equally the trail went cold in the search for the person who stole the pair of trainers in February this year.

On the same day a pair of shoes went missing, possibly leading the police to wonder if they were treading the footpath of the same culprit.

All these crimes remained unsolved as did the seven reports of thefts of sums of money.

These ranged from £4 taken from a charity box left insecure and unattended on a desk to £50 taken out of an unlocked drawer. On two occasions keys went missing from unlocked drawers and someone stole a mobile phone left in an unlocked cupboard.

A non-theft related crime was the removal of a metal barrier from its holder the barrier lifter is still at large.

A police spokesman said no suspects have been identified for the crimes but efforts will continue to identify potential lines of inquiry.

“We work closely with Scottish Parliament security staff to provide security advice to staff and building users with a view to crime prevention,” he added.

A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: “All instances of theft are taken seriously and reported to the Parliament’s police unit at Holyrood.”