A one-legged man used his walking stick to smash a shop window before clambering into a nail bar and helping himself to a haul of items.
David Phillips spent 22 minutes rifling around inside the shop but he was caught red-handed after witnesses saw him climbing back out through the broken window.
Yesterday at Perth Sheriff Court, 52-year-old Phillips appeared in a wheelchair as he admitted breaking into the Nail Boutique in Perth on May 27 last year.
Depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie said: “The owner’s daughter had closed up for the day and left the premises secured.
“At 8.40pm members of the public were walking past when they saw a broken window. They called the salon owner.
“They then saw the accused climbing out the window in possession of several items and they called the police. He was traced outside Perth Railway Station a short time later and detained.
“He was searched and found to be in possession of all of the stolen items except the cash. Officers carried out a review of CCTV.
“He was seen to have used his walking stick and an object to strike the window, breaking it. He then entered and was inside the store for 22 minutes.”
Miss Gillespie said Phillips had a long record of previous convictions including housebreaking, shoplifting, assault, reckless discharge of a firearm and attempted murder.
Sheriff Pino Di Emidio deferred sentence for social work reports and a restriction of liberty assessment and Phillips was returned to Perth Prison.
He is currently serving a nine-month sentence imposed ten days ago after he admitted stealing two bottles of perfume from Debenhams in Perth.
Phillips, from Perth, had previously been jailed for 98 days last December after leaping out of his wheelchair to confront a store security guard.
The amputee – who has committed more than 100 crimes of dishonesty during a 36-year-long criminal career – was found guilty of threatening or abusive behaviour.
In previous cases, Phillips was caught hopping out of Morrisons with £100 of whisky and got convicted of housebreaking because of the trail of right-footed prints he left at the scene.
In 2011, the same court heard how Phillips carried out a four-month crime spree which only ended when detectives spotted a distinctive trail of solitary footprints and crutch marks in mud at the scene of a break-in.
Phillips had stolen thousands of pounds worth of computers, jewellery and phones during a series of break-ins.
After admitting stealing a child’s piggy bank during a string of housebreakings, he was jailed for more than three years for those offences.
