A MAN found brandishing a knife in a Helensburgh street has been warned that a jail sentence for the crime is “inevitable”.

Ryan Rainey had the blade with him in Castle Avenue in the town on May 1.

The 31-year-old appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of being in possession of “an article which had a blade or was sharply pointed”.

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Rainey, an inmate of Barlinnie prison in Glasgow, also admitted a further charge of shouting, swearing and uttering threats in the course of the Castle Avenue incident.

At the time of the offences, Rainey was the subject of a bail order granted at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on December 4.

Rainey’s lengthy criminal history includes breaches of bail orders, threatening neighbours and police, possession of offensive weapons including a Stanley knife and screwdriver, assaulting police and shoplifting.

He was jailed for two years in April 2017 – and had additional time added to his sentence later that year for further offences.

Fiscal depute Emma Thomson told the court police on patrol in Helensburgh had attended a report of a drunk male near the Ardencaple Hotel in Rhu shortly before 8pm. They arrived to see Rainey “swaying and staggering” along the pavement near Castle Avenue, at its junction with Rhu Road Lower.

Rainey was brought to the dock in handcuffs on Friday, and taken back to the cells the same way, after the presiding judge agreed to a suggestion from defence lawyer Scott Adair that a ‘supervised release order’ for the knife charge, which would take effect following a prison sentence, should be considered.

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Sheriff William Gallacher told Rainey: “Standing the nature of the charge before me, and your previous convictions, in addition to the custodial sentence, which will be inevitable, I’m going to adjourn now for a social work report to consider the options for your supervision on your release from custody.”

Rainey, who previously lived in the Drumry area of Clydebank, was again remanded in custody; he will appear in court again on August 21.