A BORDERS man subjected shop staff to a "frightening ordeal" as he brandished a hammer, Selkirk Sheriff Court has heard.

Forty-two-year-old Rory Barnes, of Selkirk, pleaded guilty to a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour at the Spar shop in Market Place on January 15 by shouting and swearing and brandishing a hammer.

Depute fiscal Joanna Waller said Barnes entered the premises in an aggressive mood and demanded to speak to a person at the back of the shop who he claimed owed him £30.

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He was shouting and swearing and other shop staff tried to calm him down but he continued being hostile.

She said: "He shouted, 'I am going to get him. I am going to smash his face in. I have got a hammer'."

While the witnesses did not see the hammer at the time, he appeared shortly afterwards outside the shop waving a small hammer.

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Defence lawyer Stephanie Clinkscale said: "He is really sorry for his actions. He is embarrassed at his actions."

Sheriff Robert Fife told him: "This would have been a frightening ordeal for the employees of Spar."

He said after careful consideration and the presumption against custodial sentences of less than 12 months, he had been persuaded to impose the alternative which involved 225 hours of unpaid work and a night-time curfew at his Ettrickhaugh Road home between the hours of 7pm and 7am for the next six months.