A DUNFERMLINE thief caught stealing goods worth more than from Tesco was jailed this week.

Paul McDonald, 39, of Adamson Crescent, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday and admitted stealing a quantity of groceries, perfume, aftershave, curtains and electrical items from the Tesco store in Turnstone Road on December 20.

He also admitted failing to appear at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on January 19.

Depute fiscal Kiran Uppal said McDonald was caught stealing goods worth £516.85 and there was full recovery of the items.

Solicitor Alexander Flett said his client made no effort to conceal what he was doing in the supermarket.

"He was in a bit of a mess because of his personal circumstances," he told the court.

"He had been in a relationship for some time. It had proved very volatile and, over recent months, his partner had been putting him out then asking him back, telling him she had a new partner then he was back in the relationship. 

"He was struggling. He had lost the gas supply to his own tenancy and his personal circumstances had deteriorated by the end of the relationship. He had been left with no gas supply and no funds immediately before the Christmas period.

"The relationship is now over and he has started to get his life back together. I would describe this as a blip. He doesn't appear to have fallen back into any pattern of offending."

Sheriff Charles Macnair, however, said McDonald had an "appalling" record. 

"Most of which relates to theft by shoplifting and, whilst your rate of offending may have come down a bit, you still committed one theft last year and were convicted of two last year," he added. "The theft in this case was a significant amount of goods."

Sheriff Macnair sentenced McDonald to a total of four months and 25 days in prison.