difficulties arose from language barrier, court told

Pole fined for intimidating shop customers

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A Polish immigrant made a nuisance of himself and intimidated customers at an Inverness newsagents, the city’s sheriff court heard yesterday.

Fiscal depute Eilidh MacLean said that Slawomir Krysmann, 36, of 123 Ardness Place, Inverness, entered Chalky’s store on Haugh Road at 6pm on March 12 this year.

Miss MacLean added that after putting his hands over a bottle which witness Paul Scragg was holding, he continued to stand around the shop.

She said: “He was speaking in a foreign language trying to intimidate customers standing in front of them. He also pushed one customer as if he was trying to start a fight.”

Miss MacLean said he was asked to leave several times but didn’t. He eventually left the shop some half-an-hour later just before police arrived.

Solicitor Neil Wilson said Krysmann, who works as a painter, remembered very little about the incident as he had been celebrating with a friend that day and drinking. He said that some of the difficulties which arose were down to the language barrier.

Krysmann pleaded guilty to committing the breach of the peace in the shop while he was on bail.

Sheriff Linda Smith fined Krysmann £225.