A Moray man meowed in a stranger’s face after being asked to leave a pub – for drunkenly throwing chips around.

Darryl Wood was refused service at The Granary in Elgin after starting to behave erratically.

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He had arrived at the pub at 8.30pm and ordered food, which he was told he would have to eat at a table.

However, he began dancing and throwing chips around the room.

Elgin Sheriff Court heard yesterday that he was then refused service at the bar and went nose-to-nose with a stranger aggressively before he began meowing at him.

After he refused to leave the premises, the police were called but Wood followed the two males he had a confrontation with at the bar upstairs.

Witnesses heard a scuffle and Wood, 27, fell downstairs just as the police arrived.

Defence solicitor Ian Maltman told Elgin Sheriff Court that his client’s “bizarre” behaviour was a result of arguing with his former partner.

He said: “My client exhibited some bizarre behaviour on his part and he accepts that in the cold light of day.

“He had an argument with his former partner who he has two young kids with and felt frustrated over a situation where he had not enough contact with his kids and could see them without being monitored by his parents.

“He is remorseful for his actions and is fighting an ongoing alcohol issue and an unresolved mental health issue.”

Wood, of Ferrier Terrace, Elgin, pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm.

Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov gave Wood a 12-month supervision order and told him to undergo alcohol counselling.