A man is in jail after a shop worker was assaulted with a pair of scissors.
Scott Miller had been seen acting suspiciously in the B&M Bargains store on Telford Road.
But when a worker tried to stop him leaving, he said he had a weapon, before injuring the man’s hand with a pair of scissors.
Miller, 29, appeared via videolink from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously admitted assault to injury and failing to appear at an earlier hearing.
Fiscal depute Victoria Silver told the court that on November 21 2022 Miller had visited the shop on Telford Street with his partner.
She said: “They were identified as behaving suspiciously.”
Alcohol and drug difficulties
The store manager went to check CCTV and the pair exited the store, but were then stopped.
“The accused was overheard to state that he had an offensive weapon,” Ms Silver told Sheriff Gary Aitken.
“He has approached him with a sharp object in his hand,” she said.
The worker then grabbed Miller who managed to “wriggle free” from his grasp.
“Following the incident where he has been approached by the accused with the scissors, he has realised afterwards that he has an injury to his ring finger that looked like two small prong marks that he believes was from the open scissors,” the fiscal depute explained.
Solicitor Natalie Paterson, for Miller, told the court that her client was: “Somebody who has suffered with alcohol and drug misuse difficulties for a number of years.”
She told Sheriff Aitken that Miller had undergone detox in a custodial setting and was “keen to carry on and make good everything that he has learned so far” inviting the sheriff to consider having Miller assessed for a drug treatment and testing order.
But Sheriff Aitken instead imposed a financial penalty of £1260.
No time to pay was sought, meaning Miller, of Kirkside, Alness, will serve the alternative of 28 days in jail.