Thief took five bottles of whisky worth £426

A Stirling thief nicked five bottles of malt whisky worth a total of £426 from an Alva store.

Vincent Lowden, of Monument View, had thieved four bottles of Glenmorangie each worth £100 and a bottle of Glenfiddich priced £26 from the Co-op in Alva’s Stirling Street on December 3 last year.

The 48-year-old had admitted charges of stealing alcohol from the Co-op on December 3 and 4 last year – and a charge of stealing aftershave from Debenhams in Stirling’s Thistle centre on October 29 last year.

The fiscal depute told Stirling Sheriff Court last week that the alcohol involved in the December 3 offence was four bottles of Glenmorangie each worth £100 and a bottle of Glenfiddich worth £26.

The alcohol involved in the following day’s theft from the store was valued at £66. None of it was recovered.

The Debenhams offence occurred at 12.35pm on October 29, said the fiscal depute.

Lowden had been spotted by store staff acting suspiciously. When he was stopped by staff he was found to have four bottles of aftershave which he had not paid for. The aftershave was recovered.

His agent Lisa McGuigan told Sheriff Wyllie Robertson that Lowden was someone who has problems with illicit substances.

Sheriff Robertson sentenced

Lowden to a two-year Drug Treatment and Testing Order on the charge of stealing the aftershave with a review on March 18.

He deferred sentence on the charges involving the thefts from the Co-op for Lowden to be of good behaviour and engage with DTTO imposed.

Lowden was also ordered not to enter the Co-op in Alva or Debenhams in the Thistle centre.