Man spared criminal record over smoke grenade prank

A TWENTY-YEAR- OLD man who set off a smoke grenade in a Fort William pub was spared a criminal record after Sheriff William Taylor put his actions down to ‘high spirits’.

Alasdair Callum Greens, Kennedy Road, was given an absolute discharge at Fort William Sheriff court on Monday April 24 when the sheriff ruled that because he has been put on pubwatch, meaning he is banned from almost all the pubs in the town for two years, was already ‘quite a punishment’ for a man of his age.

Procurator Fiscal Martina Eastwood told the court Greens had acquired the smoke grenade when he went paintballing on September 11 and had told friends he was planning to set it off in a High Street pub. The court heard Greens was seen on CCTV at 1.39am the following morning diffusing the device on the dance floor of the pub, which then filled with smoke, before the pub was evacuated to allow staff to remove the device.

Defence solicitor Hamish Melrose told the court the CCTV clearly showed the pub was evacuated in an orderly fashion within 10 or 11 minutes of the device being set off.

It was removed within four minutes after that and the pub-goers returned. He argued there was no danger caused in the incident, although there was potential for it, and said his client fully agreed how ‘stupid’ his actions were.

The sheriff concluded: ‘High spirits seem much more the cause rather than criminal intent and there is no public interest in giving you a criminal record.’