A man who acted as a look-out for a housebreaker had sentence deferred for a background report yesterday.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard yesterday that 34-year-old Andrew Harvey of Victoria Street, Harthill, Shotts, had acted with another to break into a house in Green Drive, Inverness, at the end of 2013 while the occupier was on holiday in New Zealand.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said the alarm went off at 11pm on November 9, 2013, and police attended.
Mr Urquhart went on: “They found that two windows at the rear of the property had been broken and an attempt had made to enter the house.
“CID officers attended and found that efforts had been made to enter the dwelling using a metal spike and that a door mat had been used to muffle the sounds of breaking glass.
“On December 11, 2013, whilst carrying out enquiries in relation to a separate matter, detective constables interviewed Harvey.”
Mr Urquhart added: “In the course of the interview he told the constables he had been posted as lookout for a well-known housebreaker whom he named as he broke into the house.
“He gave considerable detail displaying special knowledge about the date, the whereabouts of the house, the description of it – both externally and internally, the method used, and that when the alarm activated they had both fled empty-handed.
“When the householder returned it was discovered that the perpetrator had removed cabling from the CCTV rendering it defective.”
Harvey will return to court on July 27 to be sentenced.