Police hunt for 'youngest thief in Lothians' - age 11

Published on Tuesday 1 September 2009 09:06

POLICE are hunting an 11-year-old boy who is believed to be the youngest boy ever to break into a shop in the Lothians.

The youngster was caught on CCTV during a smash-and-grab raid for cigarettes and alcohol at Dechmont Post Office, near Broxburn, West Lothian. Along with two older boys, he is thought to have kicked in the door of the shop on Saturday night, before smashing the cigarette case and fleeing the scene.

Two of the three were caught clearly on CCTV footage, with staff left shocked when they saw the pictures of the young criminals.

The manager of the post office and local shop, Liz Reid, said she was horrified to discover the break-in.

She said: "We are close-knit area of only about 1,100 people and this is the only shop around, right in the heart of our community. It's a serious inconvenience for this to happen and it has shaken us a bit, especially given how young these boys seem to be.

"The CCTV footage is quite clear and it looks like the vandalism was committed by people who aren't from around here.

"We saw strangers earlier that day carrying golf clubs around, and we believe the glass door might have been smashed with these."

She added: "I'm shocked because one of the lads only looks about 11 and the other one looks 14 or so. They smashed the door and raided the place in under two minutes."

Around 300 worth of cigarettes and an unknown quantity of alcohol was taken in the raid. The first suspect is described as male, aged around 11, 5ft, wearing a black T-shirt, with a large motif on the front. The second suspect was male, 13 to 15 years old, 5ft 6in, wearing a yellow and white hooded top, with dark striped trousers. A third youth could not be identified from the CCTV footage.

West Lothian PC Sai Chan said: "Going by physical size and shape, these kids are very young, as young as 11 years old. You get people younger than that stealing on the streets, but not breaking and entering like in this incident. This is a unique situation."

The latest incident is one in a worrying spate of crimes by youngsters.

The Evening News revealed earlier this year that five children are caught committing crimes, including assault and car theft, in the Capital every day.

Despite the statistics, the number of under-18s being reported for criminal offences has dropped in recent years, with "earlier intervention" by police and social workers cited as a major factor.

Authorities say they are working to tackle problem behaviour among youngsters before they are caught committing crimes.