A man broke through a Fife shop roof and stole £400 from a till because he said the shopkeeper had been rude to him and failed to give him the correct change.
Adam Bett clambered through a hole in the roof of the Premier Store in Ballingry’s Westwood Crescent.
It is believed he made the hole himself.
The 37-year-old appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing and Sheriff Charles Macnair jailed him for six months.
Broke through roof
Procurator fiscal depute Zahra Bhatti told the court the shop was secure but Bett managed to get inside through a hole in the roof.
The fiscal depute said a witness had seen someone on the shop roof who was making a lot of noise at the time.
The inference was that Bett, who has previous convictions for housebreaking, had made the hole himself.
Sheriff Macnair said that in a report before the court, Bett had tried to justify the offence by saying he did not get the change he was entitled to and that the shopkeeper was rude to him.
He told Bett: “That’s no mitigation for climbing on to a roof and breaking through the roof and it seems I can draw inference from the Crown you did break through the roof into the shop below.
“You have a bad record which included theft by housebreaking and (vandalism) offences which is a precursor to housebreaking.
“Although these are of some age, it’s not as if you have been out of trouble.”
‘Drug-induced stupor’
Bett’s defence solicitor said his client had been in a “drug-induced stupor” all day at the time of the offence and the money stolen from the shop was spent on drugs, adding: “That’s been the route cause of his offending the majority of the time.”
The lawyer said that during the police interview, his client also wanted to apologise to the shop owner.
Sheriff Macnair questioned whether Bett was sorry for what he’d done or for getting caught.
Bett, of Kirktoun Street in Ballingry, previously pled guilty to breaking into the Premier Store in Ballingry’s Westwood Crescent and stealing the money, on May 19 last year.
