A thief who targeted churches across Highland and Moray as part of an 18-month crime spree has been spared jail.
Stuart Lilley was instead placed on a drug treatment and testing order and handed 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.
He has also been banned from going near religious buildings for two years.
Lilley, 48, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing, having previously admitted 13 charges relating to break-ins and thefts at locations from Nairn to Dornoch between June 2021 and January 2023.
He had also pled guilty to breaching a special bail condition that previously prevented him from visiting religious buildings.
An earlier calling of the case heard how Lilley broke into St Ninian’s Catholic church on Culduthel Road in Inverness on Hogmanay.
On New Year’s Day in 2022, staff discovered that doors had been forced and hundreds of pounds in cash stolen.
The city’s Crown Church on Kingsmills Road was targeted on the same day with Lilley gaining entry and helping himself to £100 in cash.
On January 5, he was spotted walking into a kitchen at The Barn Church in Culloden where a cupboard that was locked was later discovered to have been forced open.
The previous hearing was told that Lilley also targeted Dornoch Cathedral between January 31 and February 6 2022.
Cathedral collection box tampered with
On that occasion, fiscal depute Robert Weir told the court: “On the evening of 31 January 2022 Dornoch Cathedral was closed at around 1pm.
“On 2 February 2022 CCTV at a nearby garage captured the accused’s vehicle driving past and on the same day a male matching the description of the accused and wearing a lanyard with a flower print on it attended at the door of the manse enquiring after a minister.
“He was invited in and left after around 20 minutes. On 6 February 2023 staff attended at the locus the north door was found to have been forced open and entry gained.
“The safe within was found to have had the lock slide moved and the collection box at the main door appeared to have been tampered with, however, nothing was missing.”
The court also heard that Lilley broke into Saint Columba’s Church in Queen Street, Nairn, on March 21 2022, in spite of a bail condition which had been imposed requiring him not to enter the grounds of any religious building.
Lilley targeted schools as well as churches and was found within the premises of Crown Primary School and Dornoch Academy.
On both occasions, he was wearing a Covid exemption lanyard and when challenged by staff, claimed to be looking for a teacher.
Other victims of Lilley’s spree were Watermill Enterprises at Cantray Bridge, Bowhunter Archery in Balnagown Woods and the Mansfield Castle Hotel in Tain.
His DNA was present at a number of the crime scenes and was also found on tools investigators believed were used to gain entry to properties.
Lilley was captured by CCTV cameras at some of the crime scenes, witnesses who saw him at others were able to identify him.
Thief was ‘powerless’ in addiction’s ‘thrall’
Speaking at the sentencing hearing, solicitor Marc Dickson said his client had been a drug addict “in one shape or form for three decades” and had been “powerless in the thrall” of addiction when the crimes were committed.
He added that there was also a suspicion that Lilley was suffering from an “underlying neurological condition”.
Mr Dickson told Sheriff Gary Aitken that his client showed “genuine motivation to try to tackle his drug addiction difficulty” and asked that he be allowed to do so.
He added: “Mr Lilley appreciates that he has a debt to pay to society.”
Sheriff Aitken told Lilley: “It is as well that sentencing is not allowed to be an instinctive matter because I’m very very close to imposing the longest sentence.
“This string of offending is entirely unacceptable.”
The sheriff said he suspected his initial instinct would be “matched by society at large” and told Lilley: “I hope my repugnance at your behaviour has been very evident.”
However, the sheriff conceded that, while jailing Lilley would keep him “away from churches, people’s houses and schools for a brief period” he would then be out and “feeling more sorry for yourself”.
Sheriff Aitken instead placed Lilley on a drug treatment and testing order for two years and made him subject to a community payback order with supervision for the same period and 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.
He told him: “You do need to make restitution to society for this abhorrent conduct.”
He also made Lilley, of Dalcroy Green, Croy, subject to a programme requirement that prevents him from entering the curtilage of any religious building for two years.
