An unhappy customer threatened to burn down an Aberdeen barbershop after they refused him a refund when he decided he didn’t like his haircut.
Graham Milne had paid for his new do from The Barber’s Pole salon in the Lang Stracht shopping centre – but moments later decided it wasn’t to his liking.
Miffed Milne told his hairdresser he would “put the shop on fire and smash the windows” after they refused his demand for a refund.
The 33-year-old even grabbed the shop’s own barber’s pole and brandished it as if he planned to break the windows of the Summerhill Court salon.
Police then became involved and, following that brush with the law, he admitted his behaviour was “childlike” at Aberdeen Sheriff Court more than one year on.
‘I will put the shop on fire’
Fiscal depute Emma Petersen said Milne paid for his haircut on the afternoon of March 4 last year but moments later decided he didn’t like it.
“Upon leaving the shop he claimed he was unhappy with this cut and wanted a refund,” she said. “When the witness told him he wouldn’t be getting a refund he became aggressive and said to her ‘I will get the money one way or another’.
“He told her ‘I will put the shop on fire and smash the windows’ or words to that effect.”
The argument turned hairier still when Milne grabbed the metal barber’s pole from outside and started “swinging it towards the shop window”.
He stopped short of making contact with the salon, though, and continued to linger around outside before distressed staff later called the police.
Had time to ‘mullet over’
Milne’s defence agent Lynn Bentley said the father-of-one admitted his guilt as soon as CCTV footage proof was obtained and said he now knows he overreacted.
“He shouldn’t have done that,” she said. “He told me he behaved like a child.
“It seems his reaction was completely disproportionate and inappropriate.
“Effectively, he had a child-like tantrum when he should have walked away.
“He accepts that the complainer would have been distressed by his conduct.”
Ordered to comply with existing punishment
Milne admitted to a charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing and threatening to damage the shop with a metal pole.
His solicitor asked that he be allowed time to comply with a community payback order imposed upon him in September, relating to a domestic offence, before any sentencing for this charge.
Sheriff Robert Vaughan agreed this was a “sensible suggestion”.
He deferred sentencing for six months to allow Milne, of Westray Road, Aberdeen, to be of good behaviour.
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