A one-legged heroin addict staged a string of house break-ins across Perth.
In a desperate attempt to feed his growing habit, David Phillips targeted houses and commercial premises, stealing thousands of pounds worth of property.
He made off with phones, laptops, cameras and jewellery, but was not adverse to stealing less lucrative items, such as piggy banks.
In a raid on a business on the North Muirton Industrial Estate the 44-year-old even made off with a police intruder alarm designed to protect the premises.
However, Perth Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday that Phillips’ spree was so slapdash that officers from Tayside Police were swiftly on his trail time and time again.
So laboured was his casing of his targets that he was spotted more than once by neighbours as he picked his moment to break in.
Phillips left crutch marks in gardens and his DNA at crime scenes after crudely smashing his way into his victims’ homes.
Those errors in judgment saw Phillips appear before Sheriff Lindsay Foulis to be sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment. The sheriff said the number should resonate with the accused as, by his calculations, Phillips had amassed 40 separate convictions for crimes of dishonesty during his criminal career.
The accused, a prisoner at Perth, pled guilty to seven charges four relating to house-breaking. He admitted breaking into a house in Harris Court on November 10 to steal a camcorder, memory card, piggy bank, laptop case, suitcase, pillowcase and cameras, laptops, watches and jewellery.
The goods were said to have been worth £1500, but just £65 worth were recovered from Phillips’ former home in Bute Drive.
He had apparently reached through a cat-flap at the house to unlock the back door before ransacking it.
Depute fiscal Alan Kempton said the piggy bank had not survived the robbery the property’s owners found it lying smashed on their garden path, its contents scattered.
The next day Phillips broke into a house in Gilsay Place, stealing laptops, cameras, jewellery and mobile phones. This time he smashed a ground-floor window before ransacking the house.
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Phillips was spotted acting suspiciously in the area and neighbours gave police a description of a one-legged man.
Suspicion swiftly fell on the accused, who lived nearby, and a search of his home saw the recovery of some of the property.
Next on his list was Write On Signs on the North Muirton Industrial Estate, with the business broken into on January 20.
Staff arrived the following morning to find a glass door panel smashed and a hard drive containing company files, another that contained CCTV recordings, nine window keys and a police intruder alarm apparently incorrectly set the night before all missing.
In smashing his way in, however, Phillips left some of his blood, enabling DNA profiling to link him to the robbery. Officers again recovered some of the items from his home.
Phillips was released on bail to stay with a friend in Perth’s Pomarium Flats and was soon checking out neighbouring homes in search of his next target.
He picked a house in nearby Paradise Place and broke in on February 11 while the owner was at work, stealing a laptop and leads and a pillow case.
The accused pleaded guilty to three further charges, the first that on December 15, in Pomarium Flats, he resisted arrest and struggled violently with police officers, lashing out with his arms while being restrained.
He also admitted breaching a 7am-7pm curfew by being outwith a bail address in Bute Drive on December 18 and February 8.
The court heard that Phillips had numerous previous convictions for housebreaking, but had tried to change his ways, with his last such conviction in 1999.
However, he fell back into old habits and addiction after doctors were forced to amputate his left leg during a bypass operation.
Solicitor John McLaughlin said his client was despondent and moved back to Perth to be near family and friends, leaving behind the support he had received in Edinburgh.
Mr McLaughlin said, “He was struggling to cope with the loss of his leg and once back in Perth fell back in with friends who were involved in heroin.
“Initially he was able to cover the cost of the drugs he needed through the money that came in his benefits, but his habit soon got out of control.”
Mr McLaughlin admitted that his client had decided to resume his criminal career to support his habit, despite his disability.
Sentencing Phillips, Sheriff Foulis said, “You have an unenviable record, albeit your offending has reduced quite significantly since the turn of the century.
“By my calculations you have 40 previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty and there is only one possible disposal that is appropriate.”