A callous crook who posed as a Good Samaritan to prey upon vulnerable pensioners could be imprisoned when he appears at court on July 11.
Thomas Reid targeted women aged between 79 and 89, tricking his way into their Perthshire homes before robbing them of handbags, purses, bank cards and much-needed money.
He pretended to offer gardening work to his victims, leaving a bogus name and telephone number, in a bid to gain access. The heartless 36-year-old’s depredations finally came to an end when police officers secured DNA hits from two of the scenes.
Reid had stopped his car to offer his first victim help as she struggled down the street with shopping on October 15, 2011. Once in her Crieff home, however, he stole the grateful pensioner’s handbag and purses, one containing £145.
In a second incident, just days later, he stole from an 84-year-old woman in Stanley and a third pensioner, also aged 84, was then targeted in Almondbank.
As sentence was deferred for the preparation of a report, Sheriff Alastair Brown refused efforts by solicitor Sandy Mitchell to have his client released in the interim.
The Sheriff commented: “Given the nature of these offences, a prison sentence will have to be considered very seriously.
“I believe there is a substantial risk of your reoffending if you are liberated and that it is in the public interest that bail be refused.”
Reid, of Torlochan Caravan Park, High Road, Sandbank, Dunoon, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court last month to plead guilty to four charges.
He admitted the theft from a property in Ritchie Place, Crieff; and stealing a purse containing £65 and bank cards from a house in Lumsden Crescent, Almondbank.
He also admitted stealing a purse containing £150 from a house in Stanley’s Perth Road on March 3 last year; and being in a house in the village’s Mills Street on the same date without authority.