A car thief was snared after the dashcam on a Mercedes he was stealing caught him red-handed in more ways than one.
An audio recording captured Anthony Jackson lamenting how difficult it was to steal the expensive vehicle, which was left so smeared in blood.
“F***ing hell,” he was heard saying, “this is hard to do”.
Jackson, 39, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a charge of stealing a Mercedes from outside an address in Slackbuie last year.
He also admitted charges of careless driving without a licence or insurance in relation to a separate incident, which occurred nine days after the Mercedes theft.
In that instance, he ploughed his car into another vehicle and house in a Balloch.
Car stolen while couple dined
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood said at around 5pm on July 5 the Mercedes was parked outside its owner’s Lily Bank home.
The woman and her partner then left to go out for dinner.
“When they returned the car had gone,” Ms Eastwood told Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald.
The missing car was reported to police and was found at around 3.50am the following day.
“Police officers located the Mercedes Benz parked unattended in a parking space, with a broken side window and blood staining inside the vehicle.”
Ms Eastwood explained that an SD card was recovered from a system inside the vehicle, which had been recording.
“Mr Jackson could be heard to speak and at one point he could be seen leaving the vehicle,” she said.
‘I’ve never stolen a car before’
The fiscal told the court that at one point Jackson could be heard to say: “F***ing hell this is hard to do, I have never stolen a car before.”
The car was returned to its owner, but the estimated cleaning bill for the blood-stained interior was in the region of £14,000 and was so high that the insurance company refused to pay it.
Sheriff MacDonald told Ms Eastwood she had “heard enough” and called for a background report before sentencing Jackson for this and the other charges.
Details of those other charges were not given in court, but court papers show they relate to Jackson driving carelessly without a licence or insurance in a different vehicle nine days after he stole the Mercedes.
On this occasion he drove at excessive speed for the road conditions and caused his vehicle to collide with a traffic island, failed to maintain proper control of his vehicle and collided with a residential property and another vehicle on Culloden Road, Balloch, damaging them and injuring himself.
Sheriff MacDonald told Jackson, of Torris Road, Balloch: “I consider the matter that I have just heard to be pretty serious and I’m going to treat it seriously.”
The case was adjourned for sentencing in the new year.