Crown secures "financial life sentence" order against housebreaker

A convicted housebreaker with no assets could be made to pay more than £600,000 over the rest of his life, following a court order obtained by the Crown.

Walter McRobbie (55), from Glasgow, was made the subject of a confiscation order after being found guilty of a wave of thefts from the Savoy Centre on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street in August 2011.

McRobbie broke into the centre and stole items from a number of retail units. The items taken included electrical equipment, hammers, chisels, screwdrivers, torches and batteries, travel bags, holdalls, laundry bags, a rucksack, trolley bags, jewellery, books, scales and money.

The jewellery alone was found to be worth £600,000, and the remaining items were valued at a total of £6,071.93.

In November 2014 McRobbie was found guilty of five charges of housebreaking and opening a lockfast place, and sentenced to 30 months in prison.

None of the stolen goods were recovered, and McRobbie has been found to have no assets that could be sold to repay his criminal earnings. However the Crown has obtained a nominal order for payment of £1, which preserves the Crown's position and officially records McRobbie’s benefit from crime as £606,071.93. Should any assets be identified in future, the case can be taken back to court for the order to be raised until the full amount has beem repaid.

Lindsey Miller, Procurator Fiscal for Organised Crime & Counter-Terrorism, commented: “We cannot confiscate funds that do not exist, but we have today in effect secured a financial life sentence.

“The order for the full value of the stolen goods will remain active against him until every penny is paid back, however long that takes.

“All funds recovered will be provided to Scottish ministers for use through the CashBack for Communities scheme.”