Three teenagers have been locked up for stealing luxury super-cars worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from a rural home in Aberdeenshire.
Seventeen-year-olds Liam Smith, George Cowie and Blair Thomson made off with the sports cars from outside oil tycoon Sean Dreelan’s mansion in July last year.
This afternoon the youths were sentenced to periods in detention at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after Sheriff Summers ruled there was no alternative to custody following an “planed and orchestrated course of criminal conduct”.
The court heard the trio scoped out the home of the millionaire before planning the thefts which were purely carried out for joy riding purposes.
Cowie broke into the property at Drumduan House, Banchory-Devenick, stealing the keys for an Aston Martin Rapide, a white Porsche 911, a grey Audi A5 and a grey Toyota Land Cruiser while Thomson stood at the bottom of the driveway and acted as a look out.
Then the teens drove away with the cars in the middle of the night.
The court heard the trio then appeared at a friends house with the Aston Martin before exclaiming “we’ve got a beast”.
Fiscal depute Felicity Merson told the court the car was then seen to drive away from the scene.
Witnesses later spotted it sitting in a car park in the Woodside area of Aberdeen and called the police after they believed it looked out of place.
When the teens were arrested by officers they admitted their part in the thefts however Smith denied driving away with any of the cars.
Mrs Merson said Smith did however take police to where the Porsche had been hidden and also helped officers recover all of the missing car keys.
The court heard the total value or cars stolen from the property was worth £431,000. Around £1,900 worth of damage had been caused to the cars when they had been recovered.
The court heard Cowie, of 30 Provost Fraser Drive, Aberdeen, admitted driving away in the grey Audi Quattro while Thomson, of 62 Rona Place, Aberdeen, took the Aston Martin and the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Smith was responsible for stealing the Porsche 911 as well as the Toyota Land Cruiser.
A Ferrari 599 GTO was also stolen from the luxury home but the prosecution accepted yesterday that the teens were not responsible for taking it.
All the stolen vehicles were eventually recovered.
Smith, of 28 Dickson Terrace, Aberdeen, also admitted stealing a grey BMW 3 Series estate on May 25 last year from Lintmill Place, Aberdeen.
The court heard the youths would often use screwdrivers during the thefts and would roll the vehicles away from the homes before starting them and driving off.
Smith also stole a motorcycle from outside an address in Taransay Crescent on June 20 last year before crashing the 600cc having driven it carelessly along the road.
He court heard Smith had been seen in the Mastrick and Northfield areas driving at speed and performing “wheelies” on the stolen bike.
Mrs Merson said that after he crashed it witnesses saw him “crawling away” from the vehicle in a panicked state. He repeatedly told witnesses he was not legally allowed to drive the vehicle and “did not want to be nicked”.
The court heard Smith was later traced by police who found out he had been admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary suffering from broken ribs and a collapsed lung as a result of a crash.
Representing Smith solicitor Peter Shepherd said his client had not been able to distance himself from the peer group involved in stealing cars. However he said after he sustained the injuries caused by crashing the bike, where he almost died, he scared himself into reducing his rate of offending. Mr Shepherd said Smith had suffered significant internal bleeding and a collapsed lung and needed to spend two months in hospital.
Sentencing the trio, Sheriff William Summers said Smith had a “quite astonishing” record for someone so young and sentenced him to 18 months detention. Cowie and Thomson were both ordered to spend nine months in custody.