An Aberdeen man will be fitted with an electronic tag after he brandished a hammer at his neighbour who he thought had pilfered bottles of alcohol from him.
Umberto Pallotta, 59, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted standing outside the man’s house shouting at the top of his voice with a hammer raised in the air.
His solicitor told the court that Pallotta had been drinking too much at the time and had been suffering from “paranoid” thoughts.
Due to this, he had come to wrongly believe his neighbour had stolen his alcohol.
Neighbour saw Umberto Pallotta had something in his hand
Fiscal depute Lydia Williams told the court that between 10.10pm and 11pm on the July 22 last year a man who lived on Summerfield Terrace looked out his window and saw Pallotta standing in the street.
“He saw that the accused was shouting and holding something in his hand,” she said.
“The accused started to shout towards his neighbour in a threatening manner, which caused him to contact the police.
“He then saw that the accused was in fact holding a hammer.”
Police officers arrived and found Pallotta standing in the street while brandishing the hammer towards his neighbour’s address.
He was advised to drop the hammer, which he did.
As he was led away by constables, Pallotta told the officers he had “returned to his property and took out a hammer to show his neighbour he could protect himself”.
In the dock, Pallotta pleaded guilty to one charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner while shouting and brandishing a hammer.
Only last month, the Press and Journal reported that Pallotta had assaulted a shop worker with his walking stick.
He then returned to the shop on Christmas Day to direct vile racist abuse at the same employee.
Defence solicitor Ian Woodward-Nutt described Pallotta as a man with “significant physical and mental health issues”.
Mr Woodward-Nutt added: “But the central issue that underpins his offending is that fact that he has struggled with alcohol for a number of years.
“Mr Pallotta’s alcohol was so significant at the time of this offence he was struggling with paranoid ideation – he remembered believing that his neighbour had stolen alcohol from him.
“That’s the reason for him behaving in the way.”
Sheriff Lesley Johnston told Pallotta that she had to “mark the seriousness” of this incident and his previous record of offending.
She made Pallotta, of Summerfield Terrace, Aberdeen, subject to a restriction of liberty order, meaning he would have to wear an electronic tag for 40 days.