A pizza chef broke into a rival’s Dunfermline home and snatched his PlayStation 4 in an act of revenge.
Erick Fragnito made off with the games console from Andrea Peviani’s address in Robertson Road on March 23 last year.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard the 25-year-old was rumbled by a neighbour and later returned the console to Mr Peviani, who is known to him through the hospitality industry.
Fragnito appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to plead guilty to the theft by housebreaking while acting with others.
Controller left behind
Prosecutor Amy Robertson said Mr Peviani had been moving items into a new property on the day in question.
Afterwards he was on a late shift and, when he returned from work around 11:30pm, he found the front door panel pushed in.
The fiscal depute said: “He entered the living room and a cup full of coins had been emptied.
“A PlayStation 4 was now missing but all the cables and controllers were in the property”.
Police were contacted and Mr Peviani then spoke to a neighbour who saw another male outside the property at around 9:30pm, with another man now identified as Fragnito.
Mr Peviani contacted that other male, who advised that Fragnito had broken into his home and taken the console.
Regrets
Police attended a short time later and the complainer advised them that Fragnito had been in touch with him in the intervening period to say he would be returning the games console.
When officers checked in a few days later, it had been brought back.
Fragnito, of Melville Gardens, Burntisland, was charged in relation to the offence.
Defence lawyer Shona Westwood said first offender Fragnito is full time employed as a pizza chef at Incontri, an Italian restaurant in Dunfermline.
The solicitor said: “The day before, he (Fragnito) and Mr Peviani had an argument and Mr Fragnito told me he made an ill-advised decision to get some revenge on Mr Peviani.
“The PlayStation 4 was returned and he regretted his conduct.”
Sheriff Garry Sutherland told Fragnito: “You are a young man and do have no previous convictions, but this is actually quite a serious offence, breaking in to a property, regardless of motivations”.
The sheriff sentenced Fragnito to 60 hours of unpaid work, reduced from 90 hours due to the early stage of his guilty plea.
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