A man broke into a Highland hotel – then stayed for a two-hour drinking session, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Duncan McLaren was caught on CCTV forcing entry to the bar of the Balavil Sports Hotel in Newtonmore.
After helping himself to bottles of alcohol, he sat down at a table – and stayed for around two and a half hours.
On the same date, McLaren smashed the window of an unoccupied holiday let in the Highland village.
McLaren, 34, admitted breaking into the hotel and maliciously smashing the other property’s window.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court that it was around 3.40am on April 21 last year that CCTV captured McLaren approaching the Balavil Sports Hotel, in Main Street, Newtonmore.
The hotel had been locked up for the night, with the metal shutter to the bar area closed and locked in place.
Thief broke window
The fiscal depute described how footage showed McLaren climbing on a window sill and breaking the top glass in a sash window before pulling the window up.
He entered the premises and approached the bar, trying to gain access.
When this failed, he forced the shutter up, causing damage worth around £2,300, and climbed over the bar.
He used his phone as a light as he looked around and then grabbed two bottles and a glass before taking a seat in the bar area, where he spent the next two hours.
CCTV captured McLaren leaving the premises at 6.14am.
On the same day the owners of the Signal Box holiday let on Station Road in Newtonmore visited their property and found that the security chain was attached on the inside.
Broken window was blood-stained
At the rear of the property, however, they discovered a blood-stained broken window and could see two cans of cola on a table inside, causing them to contact police.
The damage to the window at the property was valued at £300 and the value of the bottles taken from the bar was £63.99.
McLaren’s solicitor, Clare Russell, told the court her client had been in the throes of a mental health crisis at the time of his crimes, following a bereavement.
Sheriff Gary Aitken said: “There is clearly something very wrong with anybody who decides to break into a hotel to sit and have a drink in and breaks into somebody’s house to sleep in it.”
He called for presentencing reports.
McLaren, of Bonnet Hill Road, Pitlochry, will appear again next month.