Man jailed after threatening electrician with Samurai sword and sparking armed siege

The incident took place in the Charleston area of Dundee.

Clark Smith was jailed for two years and eight months over the bizarre incident in Dundee last December.

The city council had sent out sparky Iain MacLean on a late night call to Smith’s flat in the Charleston area of Dundee on December 28 because he had no heating.

Mr MacLean identified the fault - but said a gas engineer would need to deal with it, angering Smith.

The thug then got in the council worker’s face, screaming abuse at him as he tried to leave the property around 10pm.

Fiscal depute Charmaine Gilmartin told Dundee Sheriff Court that having got into the close Smith then emerged from the flat wielding a Samurai sword and screaming: “Run, run, f*****g run. Go back to your own scheme.”

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Miss Gilmartin added: “A 999 call was made and police attended.

“The accused told a neighbour the council had sent someone to repair his boiler but the guy said he couldn’t fix it.

“As a sword was involved a full firearms incident was declared and firearms officers, a negotiator, a dog van and uniformed officers were sent to the property.

“They surrounded the property.

“The accused surrendered himself around 2.55am and was taken to the police station.

“The complainer was described as having been very shaken.”

Smith, 28, of Leith Walk, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner on December 28 last year.

Defence solicitor Anne Duffy said Smith had been in hospital for two months prior to the incident having been the victim of a hit and run road smash - and had only been released from Ninewells Hospital in the days leading up to it.

She added: “He still requires surgery on a damaged heart valve.

“He struggles to articulate himself well and he becomes frustrated.

“His primary motive here was to get the complainer away from the house.”

Sheriff Alastair Brown jailed Smith for 32 months - reduced from four years for his early guilty plea.

He said: “Mr MacLean doesn’t get any choice about whose homes he visits.

“No doubt some people meet him with a cup of tea and a biscuit and are polite to him even if he can’t fix it himself.

“I regard it as a very serious offence indeed to threaten and abuse someone doing that kind of job when he’s in your home and therefore in a vulnerable position.

“To do so by presenting a sword at him, whether or not it was ornamental - because he doesn’t know that - is exceptionally serious.”