DUMB & DUMBER; Footprints in snow led police to store raid pair.

Byline: By Keith McLeod 

SHOP raiders Mark Oakley and Jason Galloway are thick as thieves their footprints in the snow led police straight to them.

The pair are now awaiting sentence for the off-licence break-in during a heavy snowfall.

Oakley, 20, and 21-year-old Galloway smashed their way into the premises carrying bin bags to carry off booze and cigarettes.

But as they stashed their bags with the haul, it continued to snow outside.

The pair, who had been drinking, fled on foot - oblivious to the footprints they were leaving.

And they got the shock of their lives when police responding to the store's alarm simply tracked them to their hideout within minutes.

The officers turned up at the Londis store in Renfrew's Dunvegan Quadrant to find the roller security shutters forced open and a window smashed

They also found fresh footprints which they followed across the street, through a front garden, then continued through rear back gardens and finally over a fence to property on Kirklandneuk Road.

Inside, they found the full haul and the dumb criminals.

Oakley, of Balbeg Street, Drumoyne, and Galloway, of Sheildhall Road, Govan, both Glasgow, appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday and admitted breaking into the shop and stealing alcohol and cigarettes worth pounds 1200.

They went to the shop at around 1.50am and triggered the alarm then made no efforts to cover their tracks.

Hazel Emmerson, prosecuting said: "Police officers saw a trail of clearly visible footprints ... to the accused who had begun to hide the items in the house."

Solicitor Lesley Chambers, for Oakley, called it a "a harebrained scheme" and said it would never have been considered if the two had not over-indulged in alcohol.

Sentence was deferred. Galloway was remanded in custody and Oakley was released on bail.

CAPTION(S):

TRAIL: Mark Oakley