A crook behind a series of thefts of work vans, tools and machinery in Perthshire and west Stirlingshire has been jailed.
Stephen Dunn, 42, was caught after police found a bloodstained door handle on a lockup garage in Braco, north of Dunblane.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard that the owner of the garage, in Millhill Road, Braco, had been disturbed by his home alarm going off in the night.
He woke, silenced the alarm, and checked his house, but not the garage.
The next morning two chainsaws, worth £500 each, were found to be missing from the lockup.
The blood on the doorhandle was profiled and found to be Dunn’s. The incident occurred on August 12, 2019.
Three days later, Dunn was involved in the theft of a Ford Transit van, worth nearly £7000, from outside a house in Braemar Avenue, Dunblane.
Police were called after a neighbour spotted two men stealing the van in the night and called the police.
The vehicle was later found abandoned, with Dunn’s DNA on the steering wheel.
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The court heard that earlier the same month, around 2am on August 5, 2019, Dunn and another man, who has not been identified, were spotted on CCTV involved in the theft of another Transit van, this time loaded with plumbing tools, from heating engineers J&K Muir, in Glasgow Road, Blanefield.
Prosecutor Michael Sweeney said the van’s theft was discovered when staff arrived for work at 8am.
A dozen old copper water tanks, which had been stacked at the side of the plumbers’ workshop, were also missing.
Mr Sweeney said: “It appeared these had been loaded into the van.”
Mr Sweeney said the van was later recovered, but had been damaged, and had to be written off.
The total value of the items taken in the Blanefield raid, including the van, was around £9000.
Appearing by video link from custody on Tuesday, August 30, Dunn, single and unemployed, of Maryhill, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to three charges of theft.
Jailing him for 26 months, Sheriff Keith O’Mahony told Dunn he had a lengthy record of previous convictions, including for analogous matters.
The sheriff told him: “These three charges in essence amount to a course of conduct.”
