Burglar got more than he bargained for after breaking into Highland home

A homeless Romanian picked the wrong house to break-into and found himself collared by an ex-cop on his return from a short break.

Thirty-six year-old Constantin Rosu claimed he had been given the address by a man and was waiting for the homeowner to return.

But he said he must have got the wrong address and instead he was confronted by former police sergeant Peter Maclean.

Mr Maclean (60) told a trial at Inverness Sheriff Court how he found Rosu in his house in Culduthel Road after leaving his home unoccupied for two days in April.

He said he had secured his house before leaving but it had been broken into.

Sheriff Margaret Neilson heard how the former police officer, discovering the break-in on his return, found Rosu and took hold of him and led him into the kitchen.

There he sat him down and took a photo of the raider on his mobile phone before calling police.

Rosu, now of the Highlander Hostel, Inverness pleaded not guilty to breaking into the property on April 14 and stealing a mobile phone, charger, battery and Skean Dhu.

Mr Maclean said he found a glass panel at the front of his property had been removed when he got home around 4.20pm on the 14th of April.

He said he had two locks on the front door and entry had been gained via patio doors at the back.

He told depute fiscal Ruairidh McAlister he had secured the property before leaving it unoccupied a couple of days earlier.

"I opened the door and smelled cigarette smoke and I don’t smoke. I immediately rushed along the corridor to see this man in my home. He poked his head out of the kitchen at the end of the corridor. I grabbed him and we walked him into the kitchen and I sat him down on a chair."

Mr Maclean said Rosu spoke excellent English and he pleaded with him not to call the police.

"I held him and called the police on my mobile phone. I took a photo of him. I was concerned for my own safety. I was not sure if he was armed."

He said the police arrived within minutes.

On inspection of his property Mr Maclean said it appeared Rosu had been there for some time.

"I found cigarettes on the floor and papers from my later father and mother, who had recently died, were lying around. They were deeply personal things," he said.

The former police officer said there was also food and plates lying around and his toilet had been left in a mess and he had to clean it up.

Asked by defence agent Ken Ferguson if he was sure he had left the property secured Mr Maclean replied: "I served in the police for 30 years. I know how to secure a house."

When police arrived the stolen items were recovered from Rosu’s rucksack.

Rosu, giving evidence, claimed he had met an older man by the name of Mackintosh who gave him an address to go to in Culduthel Road.

He claimed when he went to the property the door was open and somebody had possibly had been there before him.

He said in evidence he was waiting for the person he had met earlier to come home. But obviously he said he had made a mistake and got the wrong address.

He went to the house two days before Mr Maclean arrived home and he claimed he volunteered to the police that he had the items found in his rucksack before he was searched.

He said he was trying to get a contact from the phone for the man he claimed to have met. He added that he had been lying on a couch and felt something which he thought was his own knife. In fact it was the Skean Dhu. He put it into his rucksack in the mistaken belief it was his knife.

The fiscal questioned Rosu about a statement he gave to police when he told them: ‘Look I was very tired. It was raining. I break the glass to into the house’.

Rosu said he could not explain why he said that: "I was stupid," he told the court.

Sheriff Neilson found him guilty.

Sentence was deferred until October 2 for criminal justice social work reports on Rosu who had no previous convictions.

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