Two Aberdeen businesses which had their fundraising tins for two children’s cancer charities stolen last month have raised more than £1,000 for their causes – many times more than the amount of cash originally stolen.
On November 29, David Lander sneaked out two donation tins from Wagleys bar and Sizzlers takeaway, with a total of around £160 that was due to be donated to children’s hospice charity Chas and the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.
The 54-year-old appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court earlier this week and admitted taking the money.
Lander has now been jailed for five months.
The court heard that when police officers searched his house, they discovered the pair of charity tins and both were empty. None of the money was recovered.
But to try and make up for their loss, the owners of Wagleys and Sizzlers banded together for a special joint fundraising night on Wednesday, and ended up raising much more than they expected.
Wagleys manager Alison Gordon said: “The oil company Apache is going to give £500 for Chas, and £500 for the eye cancer trust.
“As for us, we’ve raised at least £1,200 together for Chas since the box was stolen.
“It’s good to see there’s still good, honest people out there, and it’s great to hear that justice has been done, and our night of raffles and quizzes was good fun too.
“And because he was in court on the same day of our charity night, everyone was on a high, they were loving it.”
Keith Crockett, the owner of Sizzlers, was especially saddened by the loss of his charity box, which Lander had cut free from a chain attached to his takeaway’s front counter, because he raises money for his chosen charity in honour of his friend’s grandson, who was born with eye cancer.
Mr Crockett said: “It went really well. I think, between the two of us, we raised around £1,600 in total. It’s beyond what we thought.
“The evening was planned to put back what was estimated to be missing in the first place, but it’s basically hundreds of extra pounds that the charity wouldn’t have had.
“I am very happy to see him behind bars. It was a horrible crime.”