A Peterhead barber who spread fear and alarm at Wetherspoons has been fined for squaring up to a group of men with butterknives.
Haydar Yaman asked staff at the Cross Keys pub in Peterhead where they kept their steak knives before running outside wielding a pair of butterknives and challenging three men to a fight.
At the town’s sheriff court on Friday, he apologised for his actions.
‘I’m away to stab these guys’
Fiscal depute Anne MacDonald said Yaman, originally from London, had burst into the bar at about 8.40pm on July 5 last year and made for the utensils tray.
“He’s described as being in a frantic manner,” she added.
“He then asked the bar staff something along the lines of ‘where are the steak knives?’
“The accused was then heard to say ‘I’m away to stab these guys’.”
When pushed by staff on what he was doing, he told them: “There’s one man on 50.”
The 23-year-old would go on to run back outside with his cutlery.
Yaman was eventually convinced to drop the blades by a member of staff and ran away again before police could arrive.
Ms MacDonald said: “It was, as my lord can imagine, a state of confusion.
“The police could not exactly establish why the accused acted in this way.”
Barber was in a bit of a panic
Marianne Milligan, defending Yaman, said her client had been out drinking earlier in the evening with his cousin before encountering the three men.
She said the hairdresser exchanged words with the men outside a shop and then ran away to the Wetherspoon bar when things turned sour.
“He’s in a bit of a panic,” she said.
“My client actually advises one of the guys actually removed his shirt and is squaring up to him.
“He is embarrassed. He would apologise to all concerned.”
Sheriff Phillip Mann said the “intention” was there for Yaman to brandish a blade of some kind during the incident.
In addition to the fine, which he will pay at £20 per week, Yaman must complete 75 hours of unpaid work within the community.