Murder victim hid £190,000 in biscuit tins
Accused ‘was spotted at his cottage’
A MAN accused of murdering a pensioner was seen at his cottage days before police stumbled upon the blood-spattered scene – where £190,000 in cash was stashed.
Mechanic Brian McKandie, 67, was found propped behind his living room door.
Firefighters had to break a window at his rural cottage in order to move his body and allow police inside.
Steven Sidebottom, 24, is accused of assaulting and killing the reclusive pensioner with ‘an unidentified blunt implement or implements’ before moving his body and robbing him of cash. He denies the charges.
Mr McKandie’s body was found on March 12, 2106. It emerged on the first day of evidence that officers uncovered bundles of cash hidden in tins in the bedroom of the OAP’s house, where he lived alone. Jurors were shown pictures of biscuit and sweet tins stuffed full of £20 notes.
Yesterday, at the High Court in Aberdeen, it was revealed that around £190,000 in cash was eventually found.
Two witnesses yesterday claimed they saw Sidebottom at Mr McKandie’s remote cottage near Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, a day before he was killed.
Jill Auchnie collected her car from the house in Badenscoth on March 10, 2016, after Mr McKandie had taken it for an MoT.
The 42-year-old mother of two had used the mechanic for a ‘number of years’ to service her family’s cars – always paying in cash.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran asked if Mr McKandie ever remarked over what he did with the money he got from customers. She replied: ‘Put it in a shoe box or biscuit tin. It was just a standing joke.’
The court heard that Mrs Auchnie and her children Chloe and Robert went to pick up her car on a Thursday night – the day before prosecutors claim Mr McKandie was killed.
Mrs Auchnie said when they walked up the drive, a man walked past them coming from the direction of Mr McKandie’s garage, which he used as a repair shop.
The man was later identified during a police line-up by Mrs Auchnie and her daughter as Sidebottom, who is from Rothienorman.
When they were leaving Mr McKandie’s home later that evening, the same man reappeared from behind a small white van parked in a lane next to the OAP’s property before approaching the mechanic.
She said: ‘I thought it was strange that someone was still there. I never saw them speaking or engaging in conversation or anything like that.
‘The man would have been there before we arrived. He was still there after I went home.’
Chloe Auchnie also gave evidence. The 19-year-old student said: ‘He was by his van and that’s when I realised he was still there. Me and my brother thought it was odd that the guy had stayed around. My mum said the same.’
Both women identified Sidebottom in the dock as the man they had seen at the house.
Philip McIntosh, 68, ran a garage in Aberdeenshire five miles from Mr McKandie and would occasionally supply parts to the handyman.
He also gave evidence during which he told of the pensioner referring to where he put his cash.
Mr McIntosh, now retired, said: ‘He did say he would put it in his shoe box. I thought it was just a saying he had.’
Under cross examination, Ian Duguid, QC, put it to Mr Macintosh: ‘If he was putting stuff in a shoe box and there was no trading account, then there would be nothing to show the tax man. Would you be surprised if he had £190,000 in his house?’
Mr McIntosh replied: ‘I thought it was just a story that he had about the shoe box. I didn’t know if it existed.’
Mr McKandie’s next-door neighbour Anna Cruickshank is believed to have been one of the last people to see him alive.
She chatted with him at his door about a possible car repair around 6pm on March 11 – the day he was said to have been murdered.
She told the court that after a brief conversation she left and went to the cinema in Aberdeen, returning in the early hours of Saturday.
She said she was out on Saturday and when she returned she found out something had happened to her neighbour – although she did not realise he was dead.
The trial continues.
‘Odd the guy had stayed around’