A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of a 40-year-old thief who failed to turn up at Selkirk Sheriff Court for sentencing.

Sentence had been deferred until last Thursday on Ross Butler to allow him to provide concrete evidence that he would be able to pay back more than £8,500 in compensation.

He previously pleaded guilty to three offences of theft by appropriation.

Butler admitted receiving £6,055 to buy and rent equipment at a farmhouse near Selkirk, between September and December 2016, and kept the money.

He also committed two similar offences in Galashiels during the same year.

His lawyer told a previous hearing he intended to repay the sum of £8,614, "to the parties that had suffered" and intended to borrow the money from family as as well as his own income from his new employment as a courier.

After Butler, formerly of Weirgate Brae, St Boswells, and now living in Perth, failed to appear a warrant was granted for his arrest.