A member of a notorious group of north-east car thieves was behind bars last night after he admitted carrying out a three-day crime spree in Aberdeen this summer.
Serial offender Michael Beaton was joined by other members of the gang, which has blighted the region for years, when he entered a number of homes before stealing a string of valuables and car keys.
The 20-year-old and his fellow thieves made off with a total of three motors between June 29 and July 1 this year.
Yesterday the young man – who has a string of related previous convictions – admitted carrying out a total of five offences, including the theft of all the cars.
The court heard Beaton had only been released from his last period in detention just a few weeks before the spree. He was also on two bail orders at the time.
Beaton, listed in court papers as prisoner at HMP Polmont, broke into a house on Don Terrace in the Woodside area on June 29, and stole three laptops, two mobile phones, a music player, a box of soft drinks and keys to a blue Skoda Octavia.
He then made his getaway in the stolen car.
The following day Beaton, whilst acting with at least one other, stole the keys from a house in Hopecroft Road, Bucksburn and made off with two more cars.
Yesterday Sheriff Graham Buchanan deferred sentence on the repeat offender for background reports to be carried out, but remanded him in custody.
For more than two years, the gang, who started off as teenage thieves, have been masking their faces and heading off into the night in search of expensive and high-powered vehicles to steal and drive recklessly across the north-east.
The youths who carry out the raids are well known to the police and are arrested time and time again. Curfews, driving bans and numerous bail orders have all failed to stop them from getting behind the wheels of stolen cars.
In May, Beaton was locked up for 11 months after he admitted stealing a number of cars in Montrose and fleeing from police.
He was released early from that sentence. He then committed the most recent offences.
Earlier this month the Press and Journal revealed that 118 cars and motorbikes had been taken from the city this summer.
And an average of 10 vehicles have been reported missing in the city every week in the past three months.