EK soldier fined for stealing rockets from army base

Jun 10 2009 by Louise Reilly, East Kilbride News

A SOLDIER who stole rockets from an Army base has been fined £1500.

A bomb squad expert was called to the East Kilbride home of Stuart Anderson, 34, after police found the powerful rockets in his bedroom.

Anderson, a private with the Scots Guards, was caught with two hand-fired illuminating flares after police acting on a tip-off searched his house in Westwood.

He admitted taking the devices from a training camp in England where he had been taking part in MoD exercises but said he had been sent to Afghanistan before he had time to return them to an Army ammunition base at Penicuik, Midlothian.

Lawyers for Anderson told Hamilton Sheriff Court he had '"inadvertently" taken the rockets from the base.

Sentence had been deferred until he returned from an Army training exercise in Kenya.

Last week, Sheriff Joyce Powrie ordered him to pay a fine of £1500.

Depute fiscal Jim Leck had earlier described how police had swooped at Anderson's home on February 28 last year.

He said: "He agreed to let them search the house and they found a flare in a wardrobe in the upstairs bedroom."

Last night an Army spokeswoman said: "This conviction will be recorded on his military record. It is up to his Commanding Officer to decide if further action will be taken."