STV NewsA pub-goer who pocketed a luxury watch after a punter took it off to line up a pool shot has been ordered by a sheriff to pay for a new one.
Callum Love, 26, claimed the £1,500 Tag Heuer was his after the owner left it behind at The Courtyard bar in Falkirk.
Prosecutor Steven Lynch told Falkirk Sheriff Court: “The owner of the watch removed it in order to play pool and left it on a windowsill.
“Staff found it and asked whose it was.”
Love, who had been sitting drinking, initially said it wasn’t his, but then said it was, and took it.
CCTV was checked when the real owner came back for it next day, and Love was identified.
Love, a salesperson, of Longcroft, near Falkirk, pleaded guilty to the theft on Thursday.
The incident occurred on July 25, 2023.
Solicitor Murray Aitken, defending, said: “Mr Love was extremely intoxicated. It was a moment of madness.
“When it came to light the next morning, he realised he didn’t have the watch any longer and had left it in a taxi.
“He was unable to recover it.”
Mr Aitken added: “This is a bar he has frequented for years, which makes it all the more stupid.”
Sheriff Maryam Labaki ordered Love to pay the watch’s owner compensation of £1,500 – its full value – and sentenced him to 180 hours unpaid work.
She said: “Had it not been for you, this person would still have their watch.
“It was an expensive watch, and this must have been quite upsetting for them.”
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