Toilet roll thief stole from SNP Finance Secretary
A MAN has been jailed after stealing toilet roll from the SNP’s finance chief.
Patrick McHardy took toilet rolls, soap, hand gel and a diffuser bottle from the constituency office of Finance Secretary Derek Mackay.
Details of the theft, in Renfrew on November 22 last year, emerged yesterday when McHardy appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court.
The 26-year-old, of Renfrew, admitted stealing toiletries from the 40-year-old MSP for Renfrewshire North and West.
Procurator fiscal depute Pamela Flynn told the court: ‘This was at the constituency office of a local MSP. Mr McHardy attended there with another male and took various items, all of which were recovered.’
After staff noticed the items were gone, police were contacted and officers tracked down McHardy, who was still in possession of the stolen items.
Defence solicitor Rhona Lynch said McHardy, who was on a community payback order (CPO) at the time, had endured a difficult upbringing and had struggled with personal problems but had been trying to turn his life around.
Sheriff James Spy opted to revoke the CPO – imposed after McHardy was convicted of a drugs offence and threatening or abusive behaviour – and sentenced him to a total of 90 days in jail for the toilet roll theft and the other offences.
McHardy is already serving a 12-month prison sentence which was imposed in February this year for stealing a delivery driver’s car then leading police on a late-night chase while he was four times the drink-drive limit.
He had got into the green Renault Megane after the driver got out and left the engine running. McHardy then careered along the streets, swerving on to the wrong side of the road, and driving over grassed areas to try to escape police.
But he was eventually arrested after driving into a dead end street and making an unsuccessful attempt to flee on foot.