A DALMUIR teenager, who was told that she had narrowly avoided a jail sentence after launching a tirade of racial abuse at a Clydebank shopkeeper, breached her tagging order within days.

Joleen Thompson, 19, of Pattison Street, was given a community based disposal by a sheriff at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, including being tagged for three months. But within a week she was nabbed by police when she was found in the street when she should have been at home.

She was back in court last week where she admitted the breach and was told she faced detention. On December 20 she was allowed to continue her punishment in the community.

Thompson committed the original offences on June 17, this year, at Mountblow Superstore, Mountblow Road, behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear and alarm.

Dumbarton Sheriff Court was told previously how Thompson was shouting and swearing and made a series of racist remarks to the shopkeeper. She then attempted to steal a quantity of alcohol from the store.

At the time of the offences she was on bail from Dumbarton Sheriff Court, orders imposed on her on September 8, 2016 and June 2, 2017.

Prosecutor Craig Wainwright said: “At 9.45pm on June 17, 2017, Thompson entered the superstore and was approached by the shopkeeper who asked her to leave as she was barred. She acted aggressively. She told him to f*** off and that he was a P*** b****** and a f****** Muslim.

“She was told that police would be contacted. She replied ‘call them, I don’t care’.

“She grabbed two cans of Dragon Soop and attempted to leave the shop without paying. The shopkeeper managed to recover the cans from her possession. It was all captured on CCTV. The value of the cans came to £5.98.”

Sheriff Simon Pender, giving her a chance to stay out of jail, told her at the time: “I will put you on a community payback order, but it will be a direct alternative to custody. This will include a restriction of liberty order for three months, when you will remain at home each evening from 7pm until 7am.”

Thompson’s lawyer Gail Campbell told the court this week: “On November 20 she breached the order, just a matter of days into it. There has been significant concerns raised about her alcohol consumption and drinking with older men. She is also under the care of a community psychiatric nurse.”

Sentence was deferred and she appeared back before Sheriff Pender on December 20. 

Ms Campbell said her client was "rightly terrified" over the situation and had offered to go straight to the police station after breaching the tagging order. Her alcohol problems were being addressed by the NHS and Dumbarton Area Council on Alcohol (DACA).

She added: "She has had the most extensive wake-up call to her alcoholism. She made a very grave error four days into her restriction of liberty order. She immediately acknowledged that."

Sheriff Pender asked: "Does she have any intention of complying with anything?"

Ms Campbell insisted Thompson has done everything a 19-year-old could after her mistake.

Sheriff Pender said she was on "very thin ice" and told Thomspon: "Don't come back before me again"

The community payback order was allowed to continue and her electronic tagging and curfew will be extended by a month for a total time of four months.