A PIGEON fancier ended up in court after hatching a bird-brained scheme to steal wood from a neighbour so he could build a new dookit for his feathered friends.

Barrhead man John Gaughan spotted scrap wood lying in a back garden in the town’s Kelburn Street.

A few days later, Gaughan, 56, of Gertrude Place, drunkenly decided to retrieve the wood but was spotted fleeing the scene, along with 31-year-old accomplice Graham Kyle.

At Paisley Sheriff Court, both men admitted a charge of being in the grounds of a house “so that, in all the circumstances, it may be reasonably inferred” they “intended to commit theft”.

Procurator fiscal depute Frank Clarke said residents in nearby Levernside Avenue saw Gaughan and Kyle scaling a fence from a garden in Kelburn Street into their own back garden and then running away.

When the woman who lived in the house the men had targeted returned home, she noticed her gate had been broken and her garage door was lying open.

Defence solicitor Gemma Rathey said Gaughan had wanted to use the wood to build a new pigeon hutch for his birds.

Defence solicitor Peter Galletly, acting for Kyle, said his client had been drinking and taking drugs on the day in question and “became involved in this incident” when he was going to a benefits office to seek assistance.

After hearing Kyle has a lengthy record of previous convictions and struggles with alcohol and drug abuse, Sheriff Tom McCartney called for him to be assessed by social workers ahead of sentencing and adjourned the case until June.

After hearing that Gaughan has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), has recently suffered a heart attack and a stroke and had not committed any criminal offences since 2005, Sheriff McCartney decided to deal with him immediately.

He fined Gaughan £360, reduced from £400 as he admitted his guilt on the day his trial was due to start.

A second charge that both men had been in a garden in Levernside Avenue while intending to steal was dropped.