Scots thief used cat flap to raid home and nicked luxury items from motors in NCP car park

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A serial thief used a cat flap to raid a home and make off with the keys to a housesitter’s car.Steven Matthews was suspected of dangling a long piece of wood through the flap to “hook” a bag containing the keys.Matthews staged the theft as part of a spree of offending which saw him target the same car park seven times in two months.The 44-year-old stole possessions from vehicles including a Valentino handbag, a Finnish passport, and a golf club membership card.He used victims' bank cards to buy booze, cigarettes and scratchcards with contactless payments at nearby supermarkets.Matthews appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Wednesday where he admitted more than 20 charges including thefts and frauds.Fiscal depute Xander Van Der Scheer told how a housesitter was inside a property in the city’s Joppa area on April 6 while the owners were away.Mr Van Der Scheer said the housesitter awoke the next morning to find the cat flap “ripped off", his bag missing, and phone alerts from his bank saying his card had been used.The victim’s car keys had been in the bag and his Hyundai car had been stolen from outside the home.A neighbour’s CCTV captured evidence of the crime, the prosecutor said, and it was believed Matthews had fished a “long piece of wood” through the cat flap to ‘hook the bag”.Matthews, who was spotted jumping the property’s fence with a torch in his mouth, spent £31.67 at a Shell garage using the stolen bank card while the car was later recovered.Matthews also repeatedly targeted an NCP car park in Viewcraig Gardens next to the city’s Cowgate and other locations across the city to target unlocked cars.These thefts were carried out between last December and February.Mr Van Der Scheer told how Matthews