A man who stole a stretcher used for transporting bodies from a Dundee funeral home has been jailed.
Andrew King, 21, was spotted on CCTV taking the trolley from the yard of Afferton’s Funeral Directors in Clepington Road.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard that the £2,500 stretcher had been cleaned by the funeral director and left outside to dry.
Fiscal depute Sue Ruta said: “The funeral director was requested to attend a call and forgot about the stretcher.
“The next day he discovered that the stretcher was missing. CCTV was reviewed, which clearly shows the accused along with others attending at the rear of the funeral directors, dressed in high-viz jackets.”
The fiscal depute continued: “The accused looked around then carried the stretcher above his head to bins. He is then seen tearing off the foam padding and putting the padding in a wheelie bin.”
The court heard that the stretcher was sold to a local scrap dealer and was crushed.
David Duncan, defending, said King was at the yard with two other people at around 1.50pm, looking for scrap metal.
He said: “The difficulty for Mr King is that he selected this item, which is not scrap metal.
“He recognises the unpleasant element of this and does not shy away from that.”
King admitted stealing the stretcher on July 2 last year.
Sheriff Alastair Brown told the court that the theft of metal was “a serious problem”.
He added: “What usually happens is that someone will go out and take something which is not scrap metal but claims to have believed that it was.
“This is what you have done.
“The time has come for you to go to prison.”
King, of Mauchline Avenue, was sentenced to 23 weeks in jail.
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