A HELENSBURGH man tried to climb up the wall outside a supermarket in the town when he saw police nearby.

A court heard that Arran MacDonald had been seen climbing up the side of the Co-op when police arrived in the store’s car park.

The 26-year-old appeared in court on May 24 for sentencing after pleading guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive fashion by shouting, swearing, directing abusive remarks towards the officers and threatening them with violence in East King Street, and while being taken from there to Clydebank police station, on May 2.

LATEST HEADLINES: Man arrested after incident outside Helensburgh seafront bar

Fiscal depute Emma Thomson told Dumbarton Sheriff Court: “Police arrived at the Co-op car park in relation to an unrelated matter.

“They saw the accused climb on to the side of the Co-op building and on to the loading area above.

“He was detained and started to act in an aggressive manner, telling police to ‘f*** off’ and saying ‘you’ll find f*** all on me, get to f***’, and calling police ‘p****s’.

“He was conveyed to Clydebank police office, but en route made repeated threats to police, saying ‘I’ve got a photographic memory’, ‘I’ll remember youse’, ‘wait till I get you on your own’, and ‘I don’t care if you’re in the polis, I’ll rip your f*****g face off’.”

MacDonald’s solicitor, Tom Brown, told the court his client, who was brought to court from custody, had pleaded guilty straight away, having appeared in court the day after the incident.

Sentence was deferred on that date for a background report from social workers.

READ MORE: Helensburgh lout spared jail despite sheriff's warning over order breach

Mr Brown added: “He explained to me that he has a drug and alcohol abuse problem. He needs to try and sort things out.

“Police thought he had something on him, but he didn’t. They got an anonymous tip-off and, understandably, had to investigate.”

Mr Brown said his client had successfully completed a community payback order (CPO) imposed for a previous offence, and had kept out of trouble since then until the incident earlier this month.

In addition to that CPO, MacDonald was made the subject of a six-month curfew for an incident in July 2017, in which he grabbed another man by the throat outside a pub in Arrochar, dragged him down a driveway, swept his feet from under him and told him “I’m going to put you to sleep”.

READ MORE: Helensburgh man hit with curfew for vicious assault outside pub

Sheriff William Gallacher told MacDonald: “I’m persuaded, by your solicitor’s persistence if nothing else, and his willingness to flag up that there is another option.

“You allude to your comments [made to the social worker who prepared the report] that the police should be doing things differently.

“Your attitude, and behaviour, will not do. It’s not acceptable. But by a very, very close call I will make you the subject of a community payback order.”

MacDonald, who was described in court papers as a resident of West Clyde Street in Helensburgh but was released to an address in Laggary Road in Rhu, will be under social workers’ supervision until August 2020. He will also have to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work within six months as a punishment.