Drunk OAP who claimed he would kill is sent to jail

Officers were alerted by the Scottish Ambulance Service after they took the chilling call from pensioner Allan West on April 23.

When they got there he confessed: “I only did it to get attention.”

At Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday the 62-year-old admitted threatening or abusive behaviour and jailed for six months.

The court was told West had been drinking before he repeatedly phoned the emergency service claiming he had a gun and a knife.

He warned staff: “I’m going to kill the first person who walks through my door or walks past my house in the next 30 minutes.”

West was arrested and taken to Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert to be seen by doctors because police were concerned about his mental health.

Defence lawyer Lynn Swan said: “He did not have a gun or a knife. When police arrived he was rambling.

“He says he can take or leave alcohol, but is a binge drinker. He regrets phoning the ambulance service and making the threats.”

She urged that West, from 167 Bowhouse Road, Grangemouth, avoid jail and be placed on a community payback order, which he has been on in the past, instead.

She claimed: “He is willing to do unpaid work because that is something that has given him focus before.”

Sheriff Derek Livingston said he was “not in the least convinced” that West, who appeared in court from custody after being remanded since his arrest, would carry out a community-based sentence or wanted to do anything about his drinking problem.

He told him: “You have a record for this sort of thing, five in the last year.

“Anyone who calls the emergency services repeatedly and says what you said should expect custody.”

The sheriff backdated West’s sentence to April 25, the day he appeared in court and pled guilty.