A woman who disturbed a desperate drug addict as he looted her mother’s home took pity on the criminal after he broke down in tears.
Instead of turning Dundee thief Martin Cord over to the police, she instead took him to a local church to be fed.
However, after seeing him on to the bus back to Dundee, she later realised he had made off with jewellery, a camera bag and other items of sentimental value.
Cord, 27, a prisoner at Perth, was later found in possession of the stolen goods and heroin.
He admitted his guilt at Dundee Sheriff Court and was jailed for 26 months by Sheriff Richard Davidson.
The court heard the serial housebreaker was interrupted by the home-owner’s 52-year-old daughter as he rifled through possessions in the plush house on Greyfriars Garden in St Andrews.
Depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie told the court the woman asked what he was doing in her home and he said he was homeless and told her his mother had died in a car crash.
The fiscal said: “A TV set, a laptop bag containing a computer and several other items had been gathered up from various rooms in the house.
“Despite this she took pity on him and took him to the local church and got him food and made arrangements to get help for him.
“He then got the bus home to Dundee.”
The woman later discovered several items of sentimental value were missing.
The woman’s mother, who asked not to be named, has insisted Cord needs rehabilitation, not jail.
Speaking to The Courier at her home in St Andrews after the sentence, she said: “My daughter would not like to see him jailed and neither would I.
“He seemed to be very distressed at the time. He was in the hallway when my daughter came in.
“He was not violent and didn’t run away. I think he was needing money for his drugs.
“He physically shed tears and my daughter felt he was like a lost soul.”
The forgiving lady described the incident as “a sad sign of the times”.
“If you ask me he needs to be taken into rehabilitation, not put in prison,” she continued.
“It shows how desperate people can be.
“I’m not advocating a soft touch but the system must be altered. The money being spent to put people in prison is ridiculous when it doesn’t work.”
She added: “I think people should be given more attention when they come out of prison. They should get help to get a job, and maybe have a mentor until they get settled.
“It is the tragedy of drugs that leads to this kind of thing.”
Sheriff Davidson pointed out that Cord was a regular housebreaker with 21 previous convictions.