A MAN tried to steal memory cards from a Dunfermline supermarket after becoming angry he had been asked to leave another store.

Andy Gheorghe, 33, appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday after previously admitting that he attempted to steal the two items from Asda Halbeath on December 1 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of having a lock knife in his possession.

Depute fiscal Freya Anderson said Gheorge, of Bonnyhaugh Lane, Edinburgh, was monitored on CCTV as he appeared suspicious. He was seen to put the memory cards – valued at £74 – in a trolley and then concealed them inside bedding.

When searched by police, they also found a lock knife on him.

Solicitor Rosni Joshi said the situation was a "peculiar" one.

"There is very little I can offer by way of an explanation," she said. "He had been in a neighbouring store shortly before and was asked to leave. He had funds with him. He thereafter made his way to the locus and remembers being upset at being asked to leave the first store and acted in the way described.

"He says the blade of the knife was about an inch. He regarded it almost like a penknife, a tool. He was unaware that that it was a crime having previously been in the construction industry."

Sheriff Alastair Brown fined Gheorge £90 and ordered him to pay a £10 victim surcharge.

"I still don't really understand why you did this but the result is you now have a conviction for attempted theft which is going to haunt you for several years to come," he said.