Crime spree nets thief 20 months in prison

Kevin Ritchie targeted business premises over the course of 11 months – making off with a total of £7254 in a total of 13 break-ins.

In one callous crime he targeted the town’s Imperial Cancer Research shop, making off with £560 just days after stealing £40 from St Andrews’ Save the Children shop.

Ritchie’s spree started in April 2014, when he broke in to the St Andrews Laundry Service in the town’s Woodburn Terrace, two months later he targeted Eve Brown Property Management in Hope Street.

Then he moved to Anstruther targeting Gray and Pringle and Lisa’s Ice Cream Parlour.

By October, Ritchie was back in St Andrews where he carried out his biggest single crime – stealing £3400 in cash and a digital CCTV recorder from Mitchells Deli in St Andrews’ Woodburn Place.

Over the next few weeks the crime spree continued – a shop in Pipeland Road, St Andrews Physiotherapy Service, the Yewtree Trading Company – twice, The Happy Hacker golf store, and the Potting Shed

Ritchie, 38, of South Street, St Andrews, pleaded guilty on indictment to 13 charges of housebreaking.

Sheriff Alastair Brown jailed Ritchie for 20 months at Dundee Sheriff Court.