A COUNTY thief who broke into an Edinburgh home and made off with an umbrella has been placed on a drug treatment order.

Craig Douglas was spotted outside the basement property at the Capital’s Rothesay Terrace before he smashed a window and entered the home.

A neighbour caught sight of the 26-year-old five minutes later as he walked along the street carrying the green umbrella.

Douglas, who has recently moved to Pencaitland, was said to have been wearing a luminous high-vis vest and had opened the brolly, despite it not raining.

The suspicious witness filmed the incident on his phone and called in the police.

Officers subsequently found that the home had been broken into and the umbrella was discovered discarded nearby.

Douglas was soon caught and spent five months in custody before being released from prison on a bail order by a sheriff last month.

Douglas was back at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday for sentencing, where Sheriff Nigel Ross decided to give the serial offender a chance to stay out of jail and placed him on an 18-month drug treatment and testing order.

Previously, solicitor Jonathan Campbell told the court that his client had carried out “a bizarre” crime which had been “opportunistic and impulsive”.

The lawyer added that Douglas had spent five months in custody, the equivalent of a 10-month prison sentence, and wanted to change his lifestyle due to his young daughter.

Douglas admitted breaking into a home and stealing an umbrella at Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh, on October 3 last year.