Serial offender raided Edinburgh home and made off.. with a brolly

A thief who broke into an Edinburgh home and made off with an umbrella has been placed on a drug treatment order.

Craig Douglas was spotted outside the basement property at the capital’s Rothesay terrace before he smashed a window and entered the home.

A neighbour caught sight of the 26-year-old minutes later as he walked along the street.

Douglas, who has recently moved to Pencaitland, was said to have been wearing a luminous high-vis vest and had opened the green brolly despite it not raining.

Stolen brolly case was heard at Edinburgh Sheriff Court

The suspicious witness filmed the incident on his phone and called in the police.

Officers subsequently found the home had been broken into and the umbrella was discovered discarded nearby.

Douglas was soon caught and spent five months in custody before being released from prison on a bail order by a sheriff last month.

He returned to Edinburgh Sheriff Court for sentencing and Sheriff Nigel Ross decided to give the serial offender a chance to stay out of jail and placed him on an 18-month drug treatment and testing order.

Previously defending solicitor Jonathan Campbell told the court his client had carried out “a bizarre” crime which had been “opportunistic and impulsive”.

The lawyer added that Douglas had spent five months in custody, the equivalent of a ten month prison sentence, and that he wanted to change his lifestyle due to his young daughter.

Douglas admitted to breaking into a home and stealing an umbrella at Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh, on October 3 last year.

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