Two men appeared in court yesterday after threatening residents at a Moray travellers camp while brandishing axes and spades.
Robert Clark, 46, and 20-year-old Mark Stewart admitted to arriving at The Pines, near Lhanbryde, with the weapons and causing inhabitants alarm.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard the incident took place at 1.30pm on Sunday, October 18, amid simmering tensions between two rival factions.
Fiscal depute Ruaraidh McAlister told the court: “Clark and Stewart were seen to be brandishing axes and spades, and they began making threats in relation to ramming the encampment.”
Police were later contacted, and when they tracked down the two accused, they noticed the items in question a short distance from the vehicle they had used.
Solicitor Robert Cruickshank said that Clark took issue with a description of the axes and spades as “weapons” and preferred they be termed “implements”.
He added: “My client says that his initial intention was to go to the site to stop there being any trouble, but he accepts that matters escalated.
“When I questioned him on the matter, he drew a fairly narrow distinction between ‘weapons’ and ‘implements’.”
Representing Stewart, agent Matthew O’Neill said his client was a first offender who had “learned a strong lesson” from the experience.
Clark, of 7 Langston Place in Elgin and Stewart, of 107 Maisondieu Road in the town, both admitted charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, and uttering threats of violence whilst wielding axes and spades.
Clark, who has a lengthy criminal record and has been on remand since Tuesday, October 20, was sentenced to four months in jail backdated to that time.
Sentenced was deferred on Stewart for six months, during which time he is to be of good behaviour.