The occupants of an Aberdeen flat woke up to find an intruder – and the police – in their living room after they managed to sleep through him kicking his way into their home.
The two witnesses had been enjoying an afternoon nap on the sofa when Daniel Weir turned up and set about breaking in.
The 33-year-old, who knew one of the occupants as his girlfriend’s brother, kicked a hole in the door before reaching in and opening the door, all while a stunned neighbour watched on through their peephole.
Despite the less than subtle entrance, the householders remained blissfully unaware and continued to sleep peacefully, only waking up when the police arrived and caught Weir red-handed.
Fiscal depute Kiril Bonavino told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that around 1pm on December 31 2020, two witnesses were sleeping on sofas in the living room of a flat on Pennan Road.
He said the front door had been locked and prescription medication had been left on a coffee table.
Mr Bonavino said a neighbour across the hallway heard loud banging noises coming from the stairwell and looked out of the peephole to see Weir “repeatedly kicking at the door”.
The court heard Weir’s persistent booting created a “hole in the bottom of the door”, allowing the thief to reach in and open it from the inside.
The neighbour phoned the police and watched stood in the living room of the flat with the damaged front door wide open.
Householders were ‘completely oblivious to all of this’
Police then attended and traced Weir still inside the flat.
Mr Bonavino said: “The two witnesses who live at the locus awoke to find the accused and police in the living room, and they had not heard a sound at the door.”
The fiscal said Weir then gave a false name, stating he was Daniel Smith, as well as an incorrect date of birth.
But officers swiftly established who he really was, and that he was wanted on warrant, and arrested him.
A search uncovered the prescription medication that had been on the coffee table hidden in Weir’s pocket.
Weir, of Hutcheon Court, Aberdeen, admitted theft by housebreaking and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Defence agent Neil McRobert told the court his client “didn’t gain anything” from giving police false details and had remained with them until his true information was discovered a short time later.
Incident would have been ‘distressing’
He said the account of events Weir had given to the author of a court-ordered social work report was “not accurate”, adding: “He has little, if any, recollection of the offending here.”
Mr McRobert explained his client did know the occupant of the flat, who was the brother of Weir’s girlfriend.
He said: “He accepts attending at the locus. There appears to have been no response when he arrived at the door and he accepts acting in the manner witnessed by the neighbour.
“He accepts he picked up the medication and put it in his pocket.
“The householders were within the living room completely oblivious to all of this.”
Sheriff Robert McDonald told Weir: “Albeit the householders were oblivious to you breaking in at the time, they would still know you broke in and that can’t help but be distressing for them.”
He ordered Weir to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and imposed a curfew for 163 days.
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