Portobello mechanic '˜stole neighbour's car' and sold parts on eBay

Tam Noon moved his neighbours car, took it apart and advertised the partts on Ebay.

Tam Noon took the £1,000 Daihatsu Cuore after a long-running dispute over parking in Bath Street Lane, Portobello.

The 59-year-old pleaded guilty to theft at Edinburgh Sheriff Court and was handed a £33 fine – dismissed as “laughable” by his victim.

“I just laughed,” she said. “I don’t want to criticise the police, they’ve been brilliant but the courts – it’s not much deterrent to criminals.”

The 51-year-old is a neighbour of Noon’s garages on Bath Street Lane.

Speaking to the Evening News anonymously, she told how she managed to rumble Noon herself after he towed her runabout, dismantled it and then tried to flog it online.

His victim, whose husband died of skin cancer in 2007, parked her £1,000 Daihatsu Cuore in the lane only for it to vanish in 2015.

“I parked it there and had a company car at the time so didn’t need it. It had no tax or MOT but I checked it regularly and one day found it was missing.”

Unbeknown to her at the time, Noon had moved it only yards away behind a fence where he began dismantling it.

A chance internet search two years later revealed cannibalised parts of her car for sale – via a phone number the owner was able to trace back to one of Noon’s businesses.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said the owner. “I was in shock – the audacity of the man to do that sort of thing. I had to laugh as well because he thought I wouldn’t find out.”

One ad on the website, next to a photo of the car with the front number plate ripped off, lists the front and rear bumpers “both in good condition” for sale at £21.99.

Another includes a photo of the vehicle’s headlamp, available at £14.99.

Electric wing mirrors were also taken off and listed at £12.99 each, the rear parcel shelf for £14.99, and jack and wheel key for £12.99.

Noon even tried to sell the car’s owner’s manual for £12.99 – plus £4.95 delivery.

The brazen stunt is not the first time Noon has fallen foul of the law.

Back in 2002, he became so angry with a messy neighbour that he attacked him with a metal pole.

Former friends Noon and taxi driver Graham Murray fell out seven years before.

A row broke out and Noon, of Bolton, East Lothian, smashed his former friend with a metal bar.

Noon pleaded guilty to assault and was fined £250.

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