Man jailed over theft of £45,000 family heirlooms

A THIEF has been jailed for stealing more than £45,000 of family heirlooms from an oil executive’s home.

Krzysztof Krol sneaked into Leo and Elizabeth Koot’s house on the outskirts of Aberdeen while they were enjoying the sun in their garden. They only realised they had been the victims of theft at their Maryculter home two days later.

Jewellery – including expensive items that belonged to Mrs Koot’s mother who died when she was young – had been taken from the property on September 4 last year.

Krol, 33, admitted the theft, as well as another house-breaking, when he appeared in court and was sentenced yesterday.

He was jailed for a total of 40 months.

Defence lawyer Mike Allan said his client got himself into debt after moving to Scotland from Poland.

He said: “His whole life became about gambling and of course that means he was losing money and he had no money, and that’s why he decided to break into two houses.”

Mr Allan told the court his client had previously been jailed for a series of offences in Poland before he moved to Scotland. He was sentenced to three years for crimes including breaking into a commercial premises and brawling.

The Koots previously described the theft of their property as “emotional robbery”. Mrs Koots said: “I never thought it would affect me that much. It is not just the worth of it all, it is the emotional robbery.”

Mr Koots, former managing director of oil firm TAQA Bratani, offered an undisclosed reward at the time but only £418 of property was recovered.