A woman who threatened staff at one of the Borders’ most prestigious hotels with a knife has been jailed for two years.
Elaine Fox, 45, who was on bail at the time, committed the offence at the Ednam House Hotel in Kelso on December 4. Described as a prisoner in Cornton Vale, she appeared on indictment and admitted brandishing a knife and threatening the staff.
Fox, of Horsemarket, Kelso, was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment after she also pleaded guilty to stealing a pint of lager at the Golden Lion pub in High Street, Galashiels, on October 2, and a pint of lager and double whisky and coke at the neighbouring Bridge Inn on the same date.
She received a three-month prison sentence after she admitted assaulting two police constables in Kelso Square on August 6, and later at the town’s police station. Fox was also jailed for four months following a guilty plea to wasting police time by claiming she had a hand gun and was going to shoot herself at Roxburgh Street, Kelso, on January 2, 2012.
All the periods of imprisonment run concurrently – a total of two years.
Her solicitor, Rory Bannerman, told Jedburgh Sheriff Court last Friday: “She is a very sad woman who has got herself into some really bad trouble.”
Mr Bannerman said Fox had little recollection of the Ednam House Hotel offence, but conceded it had been “alarming behaviour”.
Sheriff Derrick McIntyre, told Fox: “Having a knife at a hotel and threatening staff is a very serious matter, and you were on bail at the time.”
As well as the jail term, he also imposed a supervised release order.