A serial car thief dubbed the Red Baron staged a six-hour rooftop stand-off with cops after stealing motors worth £213,000.
Jordan Skachill went on a criminal spree which saw him make off with 13 vehicles in Edinburgh, including Range Rovers, Land Rovers and an Audi. Police recovered voicemails in which the 28-year-old boasted how he could steal to order report the Record.
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Skachill, who often broke into homes to steal ignition keys, escaped with £28,000 of jewellery during one raid. When officers swooped on his house, Skachill jumped out a window and climbed up the drainpipe to reach the roof.
More than 30 police officers, fire engines and an ambulance waited for hours until Skachill finally surrendered.
Skachill gained the nickname Red Baron – derived from the German World War I flying ace – due to his notorious reputation as a teenage car and motorbike thief.
He appeared from custody at the city’s sheriff and pled guilty to 21 charges.
“Fiscal depute Jennifer McLaren said Skachill had stolen vehicles valued at £213,000 and goods worth £24,308 between January 21 and April 15 this year.
Ms McLaren told how a Range Rover worth £15,000 was taken in the capital’s Shandon area in March, which was later recovered. Days later, Skachill stole a Range Rover worth £25,000 from the Murrayfield area and a Land Rover, also priced at £25,000, from Granton, both of which were recovered.
Two Land Rover Discoverys, one valued at £18,000 and the other at £30,000, were stolen in Blackhall and in Colinton and were never recovered.
The court heard how Skachill broke into a Corstorphine home with another man, found car keys, and stole an Audi parked outside.
He forced entry to a Cramond home and stole two Volkswagen cars after hunting down their keys.
In a brazen theft in Swanston, Skachill and others broke into a premises and stole four vans with a total worth of £60,000 in one night.
After cops recovered dad-of-one Skachill’s mobile, they found a voicemail where he told a pal: “Mate, there’s a good few motors there like.”
Skachill, who is being held at Perth Prison, also pled guilty to putting false number plates on cars he’d stolen.
He admitted breaking into a home in the Comiston area, stealing keys, and making off with a £40,000 Volkswagen Transporter van and its £5700 contents. While in the home, he pilfered £18,605 of jewellery.
Ms McLaren told the court that DNA evidence from that property led them to Skachill.
She also said Skachill jumped 15ft out of a kitchen window on to a flat roof, climbed up a drainpipe 30ft off the ground and ended up on a roof.
Ms McLaren said: “He remained on the roof for six hours, refusing to come down. He was shouting and swearing and threatening to throw roof tiles at officers.”
Sheriff Donald Corke told Skachill he was deferring sentence for reports regarding imposing a supervised release order “if you get less than four years”.
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