Sentence deferred on Glasgow man who stole over £110,000 of machinery from Inverness yard
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Sentence has again been deferred on a man who stole plant from a peat excavation company yard almost five years ago.
The incident happened in August 2018 when Alexander Ferguson (51), now of Broad Street, Glasgow, broke into the Moy Moss compound near Dalmagarry with others and removed several items of heavy machinery.
He was a former business associate of well-known Inverness entrepreneur Brian MacGregor, whose property it was.
Inverness Sheriff Court had previously been told that most of the stolen goods were recovered although a £15,000 JCB telehandler was still missing.
Ferguson appeared before Sheriff Ian Cruickshank and admitted the theft by opening lockfast premises.
Sentence had been deferred for a background report but it was not available this week and the case was deferred again until September 18.
Fiscal depute Robert Weir had told the court that Ferguson and Mr MacGregor had previously been operating together in business for a number of years although there was no formal arrangement.
Mr Weir said that Mr MacGregor had received a phone call from an employee to notify him of the theft and the police were contacted.
"Mr MacGregor thereafter made his own enquiries into the incident and apprised the police of the information," he said.
"He identified parties involved in transporting and the recipient of some of the vehicles who in turn implicated the accused as being responsible."
The prosecutor added that after Ferguson's arrest, his mobile phones were seized and analysis of them revealed audio files implicating him in the thefts.
Mr Weir said that one was to his father on the day of the theft. It said: "Right, I know I can, I know I can trust you to keep your mooth shut right. Never mention this. I've got five low loaders sitting here the now."
Mr MacGregor valued the stolen property as £110,000 with the unrecovered vehicle valued at £15,000.
