A serial offender told women waiting for a taxi in Cowdenbeath that he was notorious ex-gangster Paul Ferris and had just been released from prison after nine years.
Paul Reid, 45, claimed to the strangers he had been behind bars for shooting someone in the head.
Mobster-turned-author Ferris was a trusted associated of Glasgow crime lord Arthur Thompson, who had links to the Kray twins.
He was jailed for gun running and released from jail in 2002. A film of his life story, The Wee Man starring Martin Compston, came out in 2013.
Woman ‘alarmed’
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard Reid was intoxicated when he approached the women outside The Beath Inn in Cowdenbeath High Street on September 22 last year.
Procurator fiscal depute Catherine Stevenson told the court they had been waiting for a taxi following a night out.
The fiscal said: “The accused stated his name was Paul Ferris and that he had recently been released from prison after nine years for shooting a person in the head”.
Ms Stevenson said Reid continued discussing his personal life with the witnesses for another ten minutes before walking away.
The court heard that the next day one of the women was walking along Lochleven Road, Lochore, when she saw Reid walking towards her.
He recognised her, approached and asked if she wanted to “smoke with him,” at which point she said she didn’t smoke.
The fiscal said Reid then became aggressive and started shouting and swearing and asking to talk to the other woman he’d met the night prior.
Ms Stevenson continued: “He continued shouting at the witness and asking various questions, making her uncomfortable, and she began to walk away.
“While walking away she saw the accused running towards her. She was extremely alarmed by this and ran to her home address. Police have been contacted”.
Reid admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by approaching the women, engaging them in conversation and making menacing remarks towards them.
He also repeatedly shouted, swore and adopted an aggressive demeanour towards one of them and pursued her the next day.
Nuisance to society
Reid, of South Street in Lochgelly, also pled guilty to a string of other offences.
He admitted urinating at Dunfermline bus station, in circumstances causing or likely to cause annoyance, on October 31 2022.
The fiscal depute told the court the bus station was “crowded” at that time.
Reid also stole about £10 worth of alcohol at Lochgelly’s West End Bar on February 12.
Ms Stevenson said he was found with bottles of Beck’s beer and a bottle of chardonnay.
Reid also stole alcohol at a Good News Store in Rosyth’s Park Road in March 2022, and made threats of violence at the store.
On another occasion in September 2021, he made a homophobic remark towards a police constable at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital. The day before he had been abusive at Dunfermline police station and in the city’s Pitcorthie Drive and Rowan Grove.
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said while his client has a significant record, it is mainly one of nuisance rather than serious offences.
The solicitor said there did not appear to be any malice involved in the conversation with the two women.
Mr Flett said in relation to the theft from the West End Bar, Reid had just fled from an assault and ran into a close where he found the entrance to the pub cellar and, as someone with alcohol problems, he took advantage of that.
The solicitor pointed out that Reid was the victim of a “very significant assault” last year.
Mr Flett said: “In the main, he presents a nuisance for society rather than a menace of any great sort”.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Reid he continues to offend and that there comes a point when the court says “enough is enough”.
The sheriff jailed him for ten months.
Sheriff Foulis added: “People are entitled to have a break from your behaviour”.
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