Boiler thief caused £3,500 damage to make £30
Graeme Higdon was sent to a young offenders’ intitution for a year after the theft resulted in a property being badly flooded.
Higdon, 20, of Stanley Terrace, Oakley, admitted that between June 24 and August 27 2014, while acting with another, he stole a boiler from a house in James Hog Crescent, Oakley.
During a previous hearing, depute fiscal Claire Bremner told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that the property had been rented out, but that at the time of the crime it was lying vacant and was up for sale.
The owner went to the house in August 2014 and found a kitchen window was cracked and another window was smashed.
He entered the house and saw that it was badly flood damaged. He went upstairs and saw that the boiler had been removed, which seemed to be the cause of the flooding.
Police later spoke to a man who said he had given Higdon a lift to a Kirkcaldy scrap merchant and sold a boiler for £30.
The owner later told police he had heard Higdon was responsible for the theft and had been bragging about stealing from a house.
When Higdon was asked by police why he had carried out the theft he said “easy takings”.
James Moncrieff had told the court his client was using drugs at the time of the incident. Higdon had received £30, which he split with another man.
Sheriff Charles MacNair sentenced him to 12 months.