Serial shoplifter went on stealing spree days after release from jail

A serial shoplifter caught in a “cycle of repeat offending” went on a alcohol and food-stealing spree around Peterhead just four days after his release from prison.

Kieran McLean had just been released after serving eight months in jail for stealing more than £370 of items from five supermarkets in his home town, but four days later he began helping himself from the shelves once again.

The 26-year-old appeared from custody at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted six counts of shoplifting from the town’s Aldi, Asda and Co-operative food stores over the past week.

Last Tuesday alone he made off with alcohol from the Aldi store in Kirk Street and the Asda in Longside Road, as well as meat from the Co-op on Kinmundy Road.

The following day he helped himself to more booze from Aldi again. And on Friday he was caught taking meat from Asda and alcohol from Aldi.

Defence agent Stuart Flowerdew appealed to the court to help his client break the cycle of offending.

He argued his client was given £70 on his release and had another four weeks to wait until he received a universal credit payout.

But he blamed his repeat offending on a “difficult upbringing” leaving McLean with little in the way of “problem-solving skills”.

“His offending began in his early 20s when his background in Peterhead caught up with him,” he told the court. “He has been swept up in that since.”

“There is a cycle,” he added. “He comes out of custody, cannot cope, reoffends and goes right back into custody.

“If something can be done perhaps he is a young man who could be effectively rescued from this constant cycle.”

More than 50 previous convictions were tendered to Sheriff Philip Mann, who said McLean had “returned to this life of crime within four days of being released”.

McLean took part in a shoplifting spree between October 22 and 29, 2020, stealing quantities of meat and alcohol worth £370 from Peterhead supermarkets.

At that point, he’d just been released after serving 13 months for pinching more than £450 of alcohol, food and a shopping basket over the course of three days in the same shops.

Sheriff Mann said: “The easiest thing for me to do would be to impose a return order for his previous sentence and impose a custodial sentence in respect of this new offending.

“However, I am prepared to defer sentencing for criminal justice social work reports to see if there’s any possibility that we might be getting him back on the right path in life.”

Sentencing was deferred for reports until September 13, when McLean will appear at Peterhead Sheriff Court.

Kieran McLean stole goods from Asda in Peterhead.