Hoodie-clad Robert Temporal claimed to police that he had a ‘lookalike’ — then told Greenock Sheriff Court that the man in the incriminating image resembled his brother.
But Sheriff Ian Fleming — who studied footage of the raid on a Greenock dentist’s surgery — didn’t believe him and found him guilty after a summary trial.
Temporal, 28, used the light from his phone as a makeshift torch during a break-in at Frederick’s dental surgery in Greenock’s Union Street to allow an unknown accomplice to force open a door.
He then unwittingly allowed the phone to shine on his face as he turned towards the security camera — allowing police to immediately identify him on viewing the footage.
Yet Temporal told police: “I am 100 per cent not guilty. I’ve got a lookalike.
“I just know it’s definitely not me.” During Temporal’s trial, a police officer told how he was able to freeze the frame at the precise moment that his face was lit up.
He said: “It provides clear identification.” Sheriff Ian Fleming found Temporal guilty of breaking in to the premises with intent to steal whilst acting with another man last May.
As he appeared for sentencing, Temporal’s defence lawyer Aidan Gallagher said: “He has a number of previous convictions but nothing analogous to this, or anything at all for dishonesty.” Sheriff Fleming ordered Temporal, of Balfour Street, to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work within 12 months.
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