A man who stole £18,000 of jewellery from his mum has been handed unpaid work.
Cameron Brownie, 23, swiped diamond rings and necklaces worth thousands from his mother’s jewellery box and tried to exchange them for drugs, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.
And yesterday Sheriff Ian Wallace handed Brownie a 12-month supervision order in addition to 60 hours of unpaid work.
He said: “The purpose of this will be to address the cause of your offending behaviour, a cause which is clear.
“They’ll be looking, no doubt, at helping you stay off drugs.”
Brownie, whose address was given in court papers as Spring Gardens, Aberdeen, was handed the sentence as an alternative to a fine.
Brownie previously pled guilty to stealing a quantity of jewellery on July 10 last year.
He also admitted stealing an item of jewellery the following day.
Defence agent Peter Shepherd said his client had had a “relapse” at the time and had been accompanied to court by his mother.
Fiscal depute Christy Ward told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Brownie’s mum spotted him meeting someone while taking the bins out and thought he was involved in a “drug deal”.
She confronted him and found “two small packets containing white powder” which she flushed down the toilet.
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However, another family member then phoned her to say Brownie had received Facebook messages relating to jewellery.
On checking her jewellery box, she noticed a gold diamond ring worth £10,000 was missing.
Further checks revealed a gold necklace worth £1,000 and a blue sapphire ring worth £7,000 were also gone.
When confronted, Brownie returned the £10,000 ring.
A Facebook message was received offering to sell his mother the other ring back for £400, which his father agreed to do.
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