A Galashiels man who poured petrol over himself and threatened to set a health centre on fire looks set to avoid a prison term.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond, sitting at Selkirk court on Monday, said his favoured sentence would be to impose a community payback order on John McCarry, with a number of hours of unpaid work involved.
But he has deferred sentence for another three weeks to allow social workers to suggest conditions which should be attached to the payback order in light of the 50-year-old’s mental health problems and the seriousness of the offence.
A previous court hearing was told McCarry was furious when JobCentre officials declared him fit to work and would be getting his benefits stopped.
The 50-year-old poured a litre of petrol over his head and held the rest of a half-full plastic bottle in one hand and a lighter in the other in a doctor’s consulting room at the health centre in Currie Road, Galashiels, on February 28.
Around 30 staff and patients were evacuated from the building after the alarm was raised.
A three-hour stand-off then followed before specially-trained police negotiators finally convinced McCarry to give up the bottle containing petrol and throw the lighter to the ground.
McCarry, of Gorse Lane, who appeared in the dock on crutches due to spinal problems, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace at the health centre. He will be sentenced on August 26.