Addict remanded in custody to await sentence over five day shoplifting spree in Inverness
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A DRUG addict embarked on a five day shoplifting spree to feed his addiction when his medication was stopped.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that 40-year-old Rory Mackay of Eildon Guest House, High Street, Inverness first stole a quantity of electrical goods from Highland House in the city on June 6.
Three days later, he went into the Superdrug store in Queensgate and walked out with five bottles of aftershave.
On June 11, Tesco Inshes was the next premises targeted by Mackay, who stole a loudspeaker and a quantity of USB sticks.
Mackay admitted all three thefts as well as an assault on a prison officer at Porterfield in Inverness by striking him on the head and body on April 20 this year.
Defence solicitor advocate Shahid Latif said that his client "had been cast as someone who can't be rehabilitated. Drug use and abuse has saddled him with a life of misery."
Sheriff Robert Macdonald agreed to defer sentence for a background report to see if there was an alternative to a custodial sentence for Mackay who admitted a long list of previous convictions.
He also called for an initial drug treatment and testing order assessment but remanded Mackay in custody for it to be done.