A LOCHORE woman attempted to break-in to her grandmother's house while she was at the bingo.

Michelle Finlay was spotted by a neighbour who caught her in the act and took photos of the scene.

She appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court after being remanded in custody since September 26 on a total of three matters.

Finlay, 24, of McGinlay Terrace, previously admitted that on July 10, 2016, she did by means of attempting to remove the lock on the door of the aforementioned premise with a wrench or similar tool did attempt to break-into the dwelling house occupied by her grandmother at Union Street, Cowdenbeath, with intent to steal.

Also between March 16 and September 1, 2017 both dates inclusive at Linburn Health Centre, Dunfermline, she did pretend to Celine O'Brien and others, that she was someone else, which she knew to be false and did thus induce said Celine O'Brien and others to issue prescriptions to her for a substance, namely Tramadol, and did thus obtain various quantities of prescriptions for Tramadol by fraud.

And between September September 2 and September 8, 2017 both dates inclusive at Asda Superstore, Halbeath Retail Park, Dunfermline and elsewhere, she did use a stolen bank card and true PIN force open a lockfast ATM and steal £540 in cash.

When Depute Fiscal, Dev Kapadia, explained the circumstances of the attempted house breaking, he said that the grandmother had some difficulty with her grand-daughter.

"At around 12.55pm the complainer was at the bingo and a neighbour saw from a kitchen window the accused at the back of the house," he said.

"The neighbour was aware that the grandmother was not at home and she continued to watch the accused who had a plastic bag and a yellow glove.

"She also had a wrench type tool and watched her for about 10 minutes while taking photos.

"The neighbour banged on the door and the accused put the wrench back and walked out.

"Afterwards the neighbour called the grandmother and told her what had happened and showed her some photos.

"Finlay's grandmother became extremely upset when she realised it was her and the photos were given to the police."

Finlay also pretended to be someone she knew to get prescribed Tramadol from medical staff.

On September 8 she had a fit at the complainer's mother's house. The mother drove her to hospital for treatment and thereafter she looked in Finlay's bag and found medicine for her daughter.

She challenged Finlay about it as she was not aware that her daughter had been prescribed this and when the woman made enquiries she discovered 16 appointments had been made in the daughter’s name.

It became obvious to witnesses that someone had pretended to be the complainer and when CCTV was viewed Finlay was identified.

Finlay also took a card belonging to her mother and when the complainer checked her bank account she could see transactions of £540 that she hadn’t taken out. CCTV again showed Finlay taking the money and it was never recovered.

Defence solicitor, Roshni Joshi, said: "Reports clearly show the difficulties she's had. She has no experience of custody and she has found this experience a harrowing one.

"She has used her time wisely in custody and sought help from a charity.

"She has problems with prescribed medication and has now asked her church minister for help with counselling.

"Her coping mechanism was burying her head in the sand. These offences are out of character and I would say in this case mental health difficulties are the problem."

Finlay was placed on a restriction of liberty order for six months and an 18 month supervision order.

Sheriff Craig McSherry told Finlay if she breached the order she would find herself in custody.