A teenager who was locked up for stealing his grandmother’s engagement ring avoided going back behind bars after a sheriff heard he had turned his life around.
Dean Kerr was sentenced to a year in custody after breaking into his grandmother’s house and looting more than £4,000 worth of goods, including the ring.
Yesterday the 18-year-old returned to the dock and admitted five more charges, including the theft of hundreds of pounds worth of goods and a car.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that between December 15-16, 2012, Kerr broke into a car parked on the city’s Rubislaw Square and took a golf bag containing clubs and balls, a trolley and a rain suit.
Two months later he stole car keys, a bike, a laptop, a Nintendo Wii, a handbag and a wallet from an address on the city’s Buckie Road.
After getting his hands on the car keys, Kerr and his friend took off in the vehicle, which was sitting outside the house.
Kerr further admitted stealing two laptops and a laptop bag from another address on the same street on May 7, 2013. He also accepted being in possession of a stolen HP laptop at his house, 44 Waukmill Crescent, Aberdeen, on June 23 that year.
Representing the repeat offender, solicitor Neil McRobert said his client had been through a lot since he committed the crimes.
He said he had since served part of a custodial sentence, against which he subsequently appealed, and was now serving a community payback order as an alternative.
He told Sheriff William Taylor that since his release from custody he had turned his life around and had not committed any further offences.
As a result the sheriff ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work within the next six months as an alternative to custody.
He said: “In order to reflect the change in attitude, which the court obviously endorses, I am prepared to deal with this by way of a community payback order.”