Serial offender jailed for stealing cars

A brazen thief who stole two high performance cars has been jailed for four years.

Airdrie man David Bowman, 31, swiped a watch and three sets of keys from a house in his home town’s Dornoch Way on September 15 last year.

He then nicked two cars, a mobile telephone, credit cards, sunglasses, golf balls and a purse containing money.

Bowman drove while disqualified and without insurance on Dornoch Way and Beechbank Avenue, also in Airdrie.

Airdrie Sheriff Court heard last week how he committed all of the offences while on bail, an order imposed on him on May 23 last year.

Defence lawyer Ph i l McWilliams confirmed to the court that habitual criminal Bowman was pleading guilty as charged to all offences.

On his Facebook page, Bowman describes himself as “self employed at HM Prison Barlinnie – heavy s***hole.”

Prosecutor Jamie Gilmour presented the court with pages of convictions relating to Bowman, and moved for sentence.

The fiscal depute said: “He appeared in private on petition at Airdrie Sheriff Court on September 16, 2019, and the following week was fully committed for trial and remanded in custody.

“With regards to the facts of this case, it happened at a bungalow in a residential area in Airdrie, which was covered by CCTV. Two cars were parked and secured.

“The householder went to bed at 1am and woke up at 8.30am and saw tyre marks on the grass and both cars were missing. The patio door at the rear had not been secured and Bowman had entered by that means and took a watch and three sets of car keys.

“Police were contacted and CCTV viewed which saw the cars being taken by Bowman and another unidentified man at 4.30am.

“The cars taken were an Audi and a Jaguar. Both were driven away and the Jaguar seen on Beechbank Avenue.

“The accused was known to police officers after viewing CCTV and he was apprehended.

“He was cautioned and charged and made no reply.

“The Audi was found later that afternoon abandoned in a field and significantly damaged. Items which had been taken from the house were not recovered.”

Mr McWilliams added: “He is 31- years- old now and no stranger to the courts.

“On being released from his last sentence, he moved from the east end of Glasgow to Airdrie in an attempt to break away from associates in the east end and of drugs.

“He has served lengthy sentences in the last three or four years and moved out to here to stabilise his life, but it did not materialise.

“He began using cocaine. This particular offence was not planned; it was an opportunist theft and he accepts full responsibility.

“He realises the only option open to the courts is a lengthy sentence. He has 464 days of an unexpired sentence to serve as he was on bail and out on licence at the time.”

Sheriff Derek O’Carroll, after a lengthy consideration before sentencing, told Bowman: “These offences are serious, involving entering a house and stealing two cars.

“As your lawyer rightly says, a lengthy sentence is quite inevitable. You have an unenviable record, mostly at sheriff and jury level, and a large number of road traffic offences and of dishonesty.”

Bowman, whose address was given as a prisoner of Barlinnie, was returned to prison for 15 months, having been released on licence.

The sheriff imposed a further 28 months to run consecutively for the break-in and thefts of the two cars.

Sheriff O’Carroll added a further six months onto the sentence for driving while disqualified and admonished him for driving without insurance.

Bowman was also banned from driving for 10 years and ordered to re-sit his driving test.