A man has been jailed after stealing thousands of pounds worth of lead from the site of Jack Nicklaus’ £80 million golf course to pay off his drug debts.
Steven Millar pocketed £15,000 after flogging lead he’d stolen from the roof of Ury House in Stonehaven to a scrap dealer in Aberdeen.
The lead, which cost £35,000 to replace, was sold to pay off debts the 28-year-old had racked up through a cocaine addiction.
But Millar, who also nabbed lead from the roof of Grey Lodge, in Kirriemuir, was caught after leaving his DNA at the scene.
Fiscal depute Brian Young told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Millar targeted the former mansion house on the Ury Estate in April 2019 while the area was a building site.
The overall development of the Ury Estate includes transforming the B-listed Ury House into apartments, with a clubhouse below, and building more than 200 homes.
Millar’s DNA found on green glove at the scene
The estate manager noticed a quantity of lead missing from the roof on April 28 2019 and reported it to police.
In the early hours of April 29 he conducted a further security check and, on approach, “believed he could see figures walking on the roof of the building”.
Police were called and the area was searched but nobody was found.
Mr Young said: “A quantity of lead was found to the rear, which looked as if it had been rolled up from flat sheets and pushed from the roof.
“Various items were uplifted by police, notably a green glove which was forensically examined and returned the DNA of the accused.”
A financial investigation then revealed Millar had received payments from an Aberdeen scrap metal dealer.
Grey Lodge, a community centre that was vacant and being refurbished, was targeted in November 2019.
The estate foreman discovered 12 lead ridge rows had been removed from the roof, and a chimney can damaged.
‘He was in debt to the tune of £10,000 while he carried out the thefts’
Police were contacted and recovered a spanner and soft drink bottle nearby, both of which contained Millar’s DNA.
The Ury House lead cost a total of £35,000 to replace, but no value was given for the Grey Lodge lead.
Millar, of Pittodrie Street, Aberdeen, pled guilty to two charges of theft.
Defence agent Gregor Kelly said his client had been paid £15,000 for the lead from Ury House.
He said: “Mr Millar maintains he didn’t financially benefit from the theft from Grey Lodge.”
Mr Kelly said Millar “wasn’t in a great place” at the time, and had a “serious dependency on cocaine”.
He went on: “In 2019 he was in debt to the tune of £10,000 while he carried out the thefts.
“He was of the opinion Ury House was abandoned, as was the lodge. He’d heard lead could be taken and sold, and that’s what he did.
“That money went straight to those he owed money to. He accepts the extra £5,000 was money he used for his own purposes.”
Mr Kelly said Millar no longer used cocaine but did smoke cannabis.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin ordered Millar to be jailed for 18 months.
Millar also appeared in another courtroom at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Friday, and was handed a further 270 days in prison after a police drug raid on his home unearthed a haul of cannabis worth almost £4,000 last February.
He admitted being concerned in the supply of around 207g of the Class B drug, which held a total street value of between £1,470 and £3,380.
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