A man who bought Christmas presents which had been stolen from the house of a single mum was jailed for four months and 15 days at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Peter Cameron Whyte, 24, a prisoner at Perth, was caught by police after he put items up for sale on an internet site and the owner recognised a games controller, the court heard.
Whyte admitted that on December 13, at Drumgeith Park, he reset a games console and controller, a quantity of computer games and a quantity of children’s Christmas presents, knowing them to have been obtained by theft.
Depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie told the court police had found a text message on Whyte’s mobile phone telling someone he had an X-Box controller and five games for sale. The person then met the accused and paid him for the goods.
The fiscal said the accused had also placed an ad on Gumtree showing the items for sale and the owner recognised the controller as it was customised.
Police were contacted and they traced Whyte. The outstanding amount of the goods was put at £269.
Ms Gillespie said: “The Christmas presents were recovered by the police as a result of a search of the accused’s address.”
Solicitor Jim Caird told the court Whyte had bought the items for £40 and had sold them on for £55. Fiona Watt, 27, whose home in the Douglas area of the city was raided, criticised Whyte’s sentence.
She said: “I’m absolutely gutted, I can’t believe he only got that time. It’s hard to say how much it all was worth.
“All our presents were taken. It happened on Friday December 13. It was a shock. The house had only been empty from 2.30-5.30pm.”
She added: “It was my five-year-old daughter’s presents that were taken but it wasn’t just presents. They also took my daughter’s tablet she got for her birthday in October, my laptop and the X-Box.”
Hearing that Whyte had been in custody since being arrested in December, Sheriff Way backdated his jail sentence to reflect that.