A train conductor stole a £400 phone in a "one off moment of madness" after a passenger left it behind.
Allan Symington, 53, spotted the mobile phone sitting on a table and took it.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard the phone's owner reported it missing, and CCTV on the Glasgow to Dunblane train showed him putting it in his pocket.
Sheriff Wyllie Robertson told him his conduct was "inexplicable".
Lindsey Brooks, prosecuting, told the court that at the time of the offence in May Symington was a conductor with First Scotrail.
The court heard the company had since "allowed him to resign".
Symington was arrested by British Transport Police in an early morning raid and after being shown the CCTV from the train was said to have been "extremely regretful".
Mrs Brooks said: "He said he had been repeatedly asking himself why he had done it, saying it was a one-off moment of madness."
Symington, a father-of-one, from Glasgow, pled guilty to stealing the phone.
He was fined £300 and given a compensation order of £400.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article