A TEENAGE yob who was spotted by police waving a weapon above his head in a street in Alexandria has been spared a prison term.

Kyle Black appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty to being in possession of an offensive weapon in Luss Road on June 29.

The charge admitted by the 18-year-old described the item as “a hammer or similar implement” – but when the weapon was produced in court, Sheriff William Gallacher exclaimed: “I’d say that looks more like an ice axe than a hammer.”

Fiscal depute Kara Watt told the court police on mobile patrol had gone to the area at around 8.40pm because they were aware of colleagues dealing with a report of people fighting with weapons.

She said: “They observed the accused with a silver weapon in his hand. He was waving it in the air and hitting it off the top of a brick wall.

“Officers shouted to him to put it down, which he did.”

Lauren Kerr, defending, said: “When police arrived the disturbance was no longer ongoing, but he was there.

“His position is that he picked the weapon up, but had not brought it with him.

“However, he accepts fully that he should not have behaved in the way he did.”

Sheriff Gallacher told Black: “Had you brought the weapon with you, and had you been involved in the disturbance, I would have sent you to prison.”

Black, of Reid Street in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow, was told to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work within six months.

The sheriff warned: “If you don’t do it, you will be brought back to court, and you’ll be sent into custody.”