A CAMERON House Hotel worker stumbled on two thieves attempting to steal a dozen TV sets from the luxury Loch Lomond resort.

Lachlan McDiarmid, 44, and 43-year-old Andrew McLaughlin were rumbled by an employee arriving to start his night shift at the hotel.

McLaughlin ran off into the nearby woods after being spotted – and McDiarmid was found hiding in the undergrowth a short time later.

The pair were sentenced at Dumbarton Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to a charge of stealing the TVs from the hotel last November – five weeks before the devastating fire which gutted the hotel’s main building.

Sarah Healing, prosecuting, told the court the hotel worker had arrived in the staff car park at 11pm on Tuesday, November 14, when he spotted a man getting out of a black Ford Focus parked nearby.

Ms Healing said: “The accused McLaughlin observed the witness and ran off into a wooded area surrounding the car park.

“The witness alerted a number of his colleagues, who tried to look into the wooded area, but it was too dark.

“They couldn’t see anybody, but could hear the sound of movement from within the trees.

“A short time later McLaughlin was observed coming out from behind a storage unit and returning to the Ford Focus.

“Staff approached the vehicle to establish what McLaughlin was doing there, because they knew he was not an employee at the hotel.

“Before they reached the vehicle McLaughlin got out, looked towards the wood, and shouted in a manner that made the employees believe he was calling on someone.

“One of the employees stayed next to McLaughlin, and the other two went into the wooded area, where they observed a number of TV sets lying on the ground.”

By the time police arrived McLaughlin had made off, but officers found him a short distance away on Old Luss Road – and they soon located McDiarmid too, hiding in the nearby undergrowth.

McDiarmid, Ms Healing said, was also found in possession of a TV remote control.

Police then found that the storage unit, which had been used to store the TV sets, had been forcibly opened.

A total of 12 TVs were found, either in the wooded area near the car park or inside the Ford Focus; Ms Healing said they had a total value of £2,400.

When interviewed, McLaughlin made no comment, while McDiarmid told police he was “heavily intoxicated” and couldn’t remember any of his movements since the late afternoon that day.

McDiarmid’s solicitor, Scott Adair, said his client was currently on a community payback order for an unrelated offence, and asked Sheriff Simon Pender to defer sentence for six months to monitor his progress on that order.

Jonathan Paul, defending McLaughlin, said his client, of Kirkpatrick Crescent in Alexandria, had recently returned to his home area after 18 years working in London as a pipe fitter.

Mr Paul added: “He regrets his involvement in this incident and is apologetic to Cameron House, particularly in light of what has happened there.”

Sheriff Pender jailed McDiarmid, of McColl Avenue, Balloch, for five months because of his “relatively short, but serious” criminal record.

McLaughlin, who had no prior convictions, was placed on social work supervision for 18 months and told to carry out 250 hours of unpaid community work by March 2019.