The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Country’s ‘lowest’ crook targeted sports centre and veterans’ museum.
Thug with 95 convictions went on two-hour, drugfuelled crime spree
A thief dubbed Scotland’s lowest crook plumbed new depths by offending in a sports centre and a veterans’ war museum in a single afternoon.
Alan Brown, who has a 666 tattoo on his neck, was jailed for 30 months for the two-hour, drug-fuelled crime spree.
Brown, 37, already had 95 previous convictions, including for robbing a priest, stealing church donations and pilfering Remembrance Day cash from wounded soldiers and children.
He set off on a crime spree across several locations in Perth on September 14, a week after being freed from prison.
He stole a wallet from Bells Sports Centre and was later seen skulking around the office area of the Black Watch museum at Balhousie Castle.
He was rambling incoherently and found with a bladed bradawl tool.
Police took him to hospital and, after a violent struggle, a £300 wrap of heroin was found in his underwear.
Brown, Greyfriars, Perth, admitted having an offensive weapon, robbing the sports centre, trying to steal from Balhousie Castle, having heroin and struggling with police.
His previous convictions include sneaking into a church and stealing the donation box and taking a mother’s cash from her locker at Perth Leisure Pool.
In 2011, he was jailed for a year after being caught robbing a priest because he left his shoes at the scene of the crime.
He admitted taking £20 pounds from Father Thomas Shields to fund his drug habit and was found skulking behind a chair by the Catholic priest.
Brown was described by a sheriff as “the lowest of the low” when he stole money being raised for wounded soldiers during the annual Poppy Day fundraiser.
He has also been convicted of stealing historically important war medals from Balhousie Castle and taking cash from children at a school sporting event.