Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Dundee thieves twice stripped lead from roof, leaving city business with £65k repair bill

Mark McFadyen targeted Water's Edge a month after Shane Aberdein had stripped thousands of pounds worth of lead from the roof.

Shane Aberdein leaving Forfar Sheriff Court and Mark McFadyen.
Shane Aberdein leaving Forfar Sheriff Court and Mark McFadyen.

A pair of Dundee thieves who stripped tens of thousands of pounds worth of lead from the roof of a city business left the firm with a £65,000 repair bill.

Mark McFadyen and Shane Aberdein both pled guilty to taking lead from the roof of Water’s Edge offices in separate strikes in 2021.

Aberdein struck at the company headquarters first, in early April, before McFadyen made off with a similar haul just over a month later.

McFadyen, who is behind bars in HMP Perth, also admitted breaking into a builders’ headquarters in the city to take more than £4,000 worth of tools.

They will be sentenced in the new year after social work reports are prepared.

Water’s Edge targeted twice

Water’s Edge, at Dundee’s docks, Camperdown Street, is a premises with offices, meeting rooms and rentable co-working space.

Aberdein, 35, was the first to target the building, Forfar Sheriff Court was told.

On the afternoon of April 4, security firm Tayside Group received an alarm signalling two intruders were at the building.

An officer attended but saw nobody.

Water's Edge, Dundee.
Water’s Edge, Dundee was targeted twice by the thieves. Image: Google.

At 11.45pm, SecuriTay staff watching CCTV saw an intruder on the roof.

A security officer saw somebody running off.

When staff arrived at 9am, they reviewed security footage and saw two men on the roof.

An employee went up to the roof to find that 90 metres of lead – worth between £10,000 and £15,000 – had been removed. Repairs cost £31,369.

Struck again

McFadyen, 28, struck on May 10 2021.

At 9am the next day, staff realised water was leaking into units at the complex.

Between 50 and 60 sheets of lead flashing had been removed from the roof and only three sheets remained intact.

CCTV from almost midnight the night before was checked and McFadyen could be seen climbing onto the roof via a ledge above the main door.

Lead flashing was brought down and hidden in general waste bins in the neighbouring plumbers’ yard.

A Transit van was caught on CCTV arriving at 9.30am that morning to collect the metal.

The repairs cost £33,668.

Left DNA on snips

McFadyen also admitted stealing tools worth £4,460 from a city builders around the same time he targeted Water’s Edge.

Edwards Builders had been working at a four-storey listed building in Dundee’s Commercial Street for six or seven weeks when McFadyen struck.

The premises was locked at noon on Saturday, May 8 2021 and tools were left out of sight in the basement.

When workers returned at 7am the next Monday morning, kit worth thousands was gone.

A window and door were damaged and CCTV showed tools being moved to behind a skip outside.

McFadyen was snared when his DNA was found on a pair of snips he left behind.

Admissions

Aberdein, of Pitkerro Drive in Dundee, admitted stealing lead sheeting from Water’s Edge between April 4 and 6 in 2021.

McFadyen, of Kemnay Gardens in Dundee, admitted breaking into the Commercial Street property and stealing tools between May 8 and 10 2021.

He also admitted stealing lead from the roof of Water’s Edge between May 10 and 11 2021.

Both men have previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty the court was told.

Sheriff Mark Thorley deferred sentencing until January 25.

He continued Aberdein’s bail but kept McFadyen on remand.

For more local court content visit our dedicated page or join us on Facebook.