A HELENSBURGH man has been given a final warning after he breached a court order issued almost four years ago as a direct alternative to prison.

Robert Cameron, formerly of Grant Street, now of Williamson Drive, breached a community payback order (CPO) after he failed to complete hours of unpaid work – on an order which was handed down in the spring of 2019.

Cameron had been handed the CPO, with an order to complete 240 hours of unpaid work within 12 months, after he admitted assaulting a worker at the former Logie Baird pub in James Street by butting him on the head on July 21, 2018.

The 38-year-old then went back to the same bar just over a month later, on August 26, and threatened the same worker with violence.

Cameron appeared at court in April 2019, where he was placed under social workers’ supervision and told to carry out unpaid work in the community – as a direct alternative to a jail sentence.

During a hearing at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Tuesday, January 17, Cameron’s solicitor said her client’s life was “truly alcohol driven” – and asked Sheriff McCartney to impose an alternative to custody because, she said, her client was soon to become a father.

Cameron’s lawyer said: “He has issues with alcohol; it has a great impact on his behaviour. But there are a couple of alternative disposals.

“He has recently approached the Salvation Army in Partick to sort out his unpaid hours, but unfortunately it did not work out. 

“[This incident] is truly alcohol driven, however his partner is pregnant and she is due in September.

“He does understand that breaching an order is serious.”
Sheriff McCartney said: “It is nothing short of a disgrace that in April 2019 you were subject to a community payback order as a direct alternative to custody and you breached it. 

“However, taking into account all of the information in the [social work] report I am prepared to reimpose that community payback order.

“If there are any further breaches and you will go to custody.”

The sheriff imposed a fresh CPO for the unpaid hour breach, with exactly the same requirements as the order imposed in 2019.

A further review  of the order was set for May of this year.

The popular bar closed its doors for good in August 2019 after the Argyll and Bute licensing board imposed an 11pm curfew on Friday and Saturday nights following a spate of police incidents in the vicinity of the premises.

It opened under new management as The Dapper Dug last summer, but closed again just a few weeks later.