Jail for drug addict who stole from beauty salon and house in Alness
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A drug addict broke into three Inverness business premises, a private house and a beauty salon in Alness and stole over £3300 worth of goods and cash to fund his habit.
Father-of-three Allan Smith (43), of Mackintosh Road, Inverness committed the thefts over six days in August 2021. But because Smith had a record and left blood and DNA behind in the raids, police were eventually able to catch up with him 10 days later.
Officers went to his girlfriend's house in Coul Park, Alness after a call expressing concern for his welfare.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that they had to force entry to the property and saw a mountain bike which they knew had been stolen from the property in Alness High Street.
Forensic examination and CCTV coverage in Coul Park was then able to link Smith to the more break-ins as he was filmed with other stolen items.
They included expensive hair straighteners, an iPad, cash boxes, a digital radio and £440 of cash from Too Glam, House of Beauty and Heather's Hair Design in Millburn Road, Inverness on August 3.
On August 4, he broke into the house in Alness High Street while the owner was asleep upstairs and took two guitars, an Apple AirPort Extreme, Nintendo electronics, a mountain bike, whisky plus other items.
Then on August 9, a break-in was discovered at the premises of Sheer Perfection in Alness's High Street and again expensive hair straighteners, £160 in cash and other items were removed.
He admitted the three offences and was jailed for 23 months by Sheriff Sara Matheson.
Defence solicitor advocate Clare Russell told the court: "His wife died in 2019 from an accidental drugs overdose and for a year he concentrated on looking after his children. He managed to stay out of trouble during that time and had been on a drug treatment and testing order which was also going well."
Ms Russell said that Smith, however, allowed his addiction to return, adding: "These were housebreakings to sell on to pay for what was a significant drug problem with heroin which morphed into crack cocaine."
