An “impressionable” Aberdeen man who set fire to four cars – and was then caught hiding the keys to a stolen Land Rover up his bottom – has been spared jail.
William Dunlop snatched the silver Land Rover Freelander from a farm in Oldmeldrum before using it to transport him and two accomplices to St Clement Street in Aberdeen.
They then set fire to four vehicles belonging to a car trader, causing £7,500 worth of damage, before fleeing.
However, the 23-year-old has now been spared jail after his solicitor claimed he was “easily led”.
Stole Land Rover then torched cars
Fiscal depute Brian Young told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the owners of the Land Rover Freelander noticed the vehicle was missing just after 6am on May 18 last year.
Six days later he set fire to a Kia Sportage, Vauxhall Meriva, Mazda 3 and Nissan Note at the car dealership on St Clement Street.
Witnesses observed a group of three males approach the cars at 2am and pour a substance over them before one of the vehicles was engulfed in flames.
One witness filmed the incident on their mobile phone and another saw the trio running away and making off in a Land Rover Freelander.
Dunlop was identified by police from the mobile phone footage and the Land Rover was found in a residential car park on Regents Walk in Aberdeen.
Dunlop was caught when he returned to that car later in the day, and when faced with the prospect of a search, he produced the keys to the stolen vehicle from his bottom.
The fiscal depute added: “The accused intimated to police constables that he had something hidden within his anus.
“He thereafter produced the key to the Land Rover Freelander.”
An examination of his mobile phone uncovered an image of the stolen car taken as well as footage of the fire-raising incident.
A green jerry can, which Dunlop could be seen carrying in the video, was also recovered from his address.
Dunlop, of Cummings Park Circle, Aberdeen, admitted charges of theft of a motor vehicle and wilful fire-raising.
Suffered ‘negative peer influences’
Defence agent Iain Hingston said his client was easily influenced and that a social work report backed up a theory that he was impressionable and immature.
“There were concerns in the social work report about his maturity and susceptibility to negative peer influences,” he said.
“It makes numerous references to his understanding and development.”
The solicitor added that the car dealer who was targeted in the fire-raising charge was not a target of his client but rather of his accomplices with whom there was “a beef”.
“He finds himself here largely due to the way he presents, his size, the way he walks – it makes him easily identifiable from the footage compared to the others who were slightly slimmer and not identified.”
‘Impressionable and easily led’
Sheriff Graham Buchanan told Dunlop that were it not for the sentencing guidelines for young people he would have been sending him to prison.
“He was acting along with others, that’s clear from the footage,” he said. “It appears that he is impressionable and easily led and that’s the impression borne out from the author of the report.”
Sheriff Buchanan handed Dunlop a two-year supervision order and 225 hours of unpaid work as a direct alternative to custody.
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