A thief fell through the ceiling of a Cowdenbeath convenience store after helping himself to bottles of Buckfast.
Connor McGill, of the town’s Fountain Place, admitted to stealing two bottles of the tonic wine from the Day Today shop on Cowdenbeath High Street during opening hours on Boxing Day, last year.
After drinking some of the wine inside the store, he kicked in the lower panel of the front door causing it to smash, before clambering into the ceiling area to escape police.
He plummeted back to the floor through the polystyrene roof tiles.
Brass-necked
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard the 32-year-old told the shopkeeper he had no intention of paying for the drink when he picked up the bottles at around 3.20pm.
Depute Fiscal Mat Piskorz said: “The accused picked up two bottles of Buckfast and blatantly said he wasn’t paying before attempting to leave.
“He became aggressive. He had been drinking from the bottles.
“The accused went into the rear warehouse as police were contacted.”
Upon spotting officers, brass-necked McGill took another swig of tonic wine before attempting to climb into the roof area from the warehouse.
However, the bungling shoplifter quickly plunged through the ceiling panels and was promptly apprehended.
Sheriff Charles MacNair said: “The circumstances here are that the vandalism is the most serious of the two charges, in that it arose after you had told the shopkeeper that you were not going to pay for the goods which you had stolen.”
The Sheriff sentenced McGill to 150 hours of unpaid work.
