A serial shoplifter caught in a “cycle of repeat offending” went on a alcohol and food-stealing spree around Peterhead just four days after his release from prison.
Kieran McLean had just been released after serving eight months in jail for stealing more than £370 of items from five supermarkets in his home town, but four days later he began helping himself from the shelves once again.
The 26-year-old appeared from custody at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted six counts of shoplifting from the town’s Aldi, Asda and Cooperative food stores over the past week.
Last Tuesday alone he made off with alcohol from the Aldi store in Kirk Street and the Asda in Longside Road, as well as meat from the Co-op on Kinmundy Road.
The following day he helped himself to more booze from Aldi again. And on Friday he was caught taking meat from Asda and alcohol from Aldi.
Defence agent Stuart Flowerdew appealed to the court to help his client break the cycle of offending.
He argued his client was given £70 on his release and had another four weeks to wait until he received a Universal Credit payout.
But he blamed his repeat offending on a “difficult upbringing” leaving McLean with little in the way of “problem-solving skills”.
“His offending began in his early 20s when his background in Peterhead caught up with him,” he told the court. “He has been swept up in that since.”
He said the former heroin addict had been off the drug for a year and was beginning to benefit from an “embryonic network of support” forming around him.
“There is a cycle,” he added. “He comes out of custody, cannot cope, reoffends and goes right back into custody.
“If something can be done perhaps he is a young man who could be effectively rescued from this constant cycle.”
‘You have got to be prepared to change’
More than 50 previous convictions were tendered to Sheriff Philip Mann, who said McLean had “returned to this life of crime within four days of being released”.
McLean took part in a shoplifting spree between October 22 and 29, 2020, stealing quantities of meat and alcohol worth £370 from Peterhead supermarkets.
“The easiest thing for me to do would impose a return order for his previous sentence and impose a custodial sentence in respect of this new offending.” the sheriff added.
“However, I am prepared to defer sentencing for criminal justice social work reports to see if there’s any possibility that we might be getting him back on the right path in life.
“I am pretty sceptical of this.”
He told McLean: “You have got to be prepared to change. You will get chances if you are prepared to take them.
“I am not going to release you today because I am fearful if I grant you bail you will go to the nearest shop and help yourself. The creation of these reports presents the best possible chance for you to represent yourself in a positive light to the court.”
McLean replied: “I want to do it.”
Sentencing was deferred for the creation of reports until September 13, when McLean will appear at Peterhead Sheriff Court.