A chef who broke into a Highland hotel and then stayed for a drink has been ordered to do unpaid work in the community.
Duncan McLaren had been 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, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously admitted breaking into the hotel and maliciously smashing the other property’s window
Hotel break-in caught on CCTV
At the earlier hearing, fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court that CCTV captured McLaren approaching the Balavil Sports Hotel, in Main Street, Newtonmore, at around 3.40am on April 21 last year.
The hotel had been locked for the night and the bar area was closed with a metal shutter locked in place.
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.
Blood stains
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.
At the rear of the property, 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.
At the sentencing hearing, McLaren’s solicitor, Rory Gowans, told the court his client was a chef who had suffered a bereavement in the run-up to the crimes and had drunk in excess as a “coping mechanism”
He said that, on the day in question, McLaren had gone out for a walk and wandered into a fairly rural area before “seeking shelter” in the locked premises.
Community ‘shunned’ break-in chef
He said that, as a result of his exploits, McLaren had “lost his employment, been shunned by the local community and embarrassed his family”.
He said: “He accepts that he needs to be punished for his conduct on the day in question.”
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told McLaren, of Bonnet Hill Road, Pitlochry: “This was a very poor episode with very bad behaviour on your part causing significant damaged and disruption to people who did not deserve it. “
She placed him on a community payback order with two years’ supervision and a requirement to complete 165 hours of unpaid work in the community.