A MAN who rowed with door stewards at a Clydebank pub after they refused to let him back in when he went outside to smoke a cigarette has been warned to expect a prison sentence.

William MacDonald appeared in court last Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour outside John Browns in Chalmers Street on January 12, 2018.

But Dumbarton Sheriff Court was told that MacDonald, of Dumbarton Road, was due to appear on an unrelated matter at Glasgow Sheriff Court within the next week – and a sheriff warned the 33-year-old that depending on the outcome of the Glasgow case, he could be sent to prison.

Fiscal depute Kara Watt told the court MacDonald had shouted, sworn and gesticulated at the stewards at 11.40pm on the night in question, and that the stewards’ attempts to calm him down had been unsuccessful.

MacDonald’s solicitor, Jennifer Reid, told the court: “This was in January last year. More recent matters are calling before Glasgow Sheriff Court.

“I understand he had been in attendance at the locus and had gone outside to smoke a cigarette, and that on trying to regain entry he was spoken to by security staff and refused.

“He accepts he was wrong to have behaved in the manner he did, and that he could have dealt with the situation in a much better way.

“This was a very minor matter which was blown out of proportion by the way he reacted.”

The court heard that Sheriff Hendry had previously handed MacDonald a community payback order for an unrelated offence, and the sheriff replied: “It seems to me that the number of options available to the court is rapidly diminishing down to one.

“He has declined a restriction of liberty order and he is deferring appointments he has been offered with social workers. What do the courts do with him?

“If he doesn’t have it already, I think he should have a very clear idea now of how thin is the ice on which he’s standing.”

Sentence was deferred until February 11.

Addressing MacDonald directly, the sheriff said: “I’m going to see you again in 10 days’ time – you may wish to use that period to prepare for the possibility that I’m going to be sending you to prison.”