A delivery driver for a Chinese restaurant who threatened to slap a customer and then threw her food on to the floor has narrowly escaped a prison sentence.
Bruce McLeod snapped after taking offence at the directions she tried to give him as he zeroed in on her home in Broughty Ferry.
After knocking on her door he threatened to slap her in the face before fleeing back to the Bamboo Express on Dundee’s Pitkerro Road at mention of the police.
His victim was left shaken and by the time she had composed herself enough to call the restaurant to complain, McLeod was back behind the counter.
Staff had barely managed the briefest of apologies when he grabbed the telephone and “barred her” from ever ordering food from the restaurant again.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard it was two weeks before police officers visited the former taxi driver’s home in Grampian Gardens but his temper was clearly still on a short leash.
Officers had been in his house mere moments when McLeod became obstructive and then launched an attack upon two police constables.
He punched one on the body and then headbutted him to the face, before butting another officer on the head.
They had to overpower and then handcuff him before he could be led to a vehicle and transported to police headquarters.
McLeod, 44, subsequently admitted behaving in a threatening and abusive manner at an address on the Esplanade in Broughty Ferry on September 4 and three charges of police assault at his home on September 17.
The court was told that his temper frayed as his victim related directions to him.
He told her “I ken that” as she explained and when she continued he snapped “Look lady, I’m just trying to deliver your food” before hanging up.
McLeod arrived at her door moments later and when she answered he was immediately aggressive, saying: “Was that you on the phone? You better never speak to anyone like that again. Ken what, I’m going to slap you in the pus.”
He then dropped her food on the floor.
Solicitor Emma Somerville said her client was “rather disgusted with his own behaviour”.
“He was formerly a taxi driver until health issues caused him to step away from that job for a time,” she said.
“This will probably prevent him from regaining a taxi licence in the future.”
Sheriff George Way told McLeod he was prepared to give him a chance and place him on a community payback order requiring him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
He also imposed a restriction of liberty order requiring him to remain within his home between the hours of 7pm and 7am for five months.
The sheriff warned that a custodial sentence would follow if he failed to comply.
He said: “I appreciate that being a delivery driver might on occasion be a stressful job but the police officers came to see you two weeks after the initial incident and yet you still erupted.
“This type of behaviour indicates there is a risk that you will lose your temper again.
“You clearly have a short fuse.”
