Ernest Thomas (50), address given as care of 8 Columshill Place, pleaded guilty to committing a breach of the peace at Rothesay police office on September 17 last year; to destroying a 'rights of the accused' sign in a police cell on the same date; to stealing a quantity of food from the town's Somerfield supermarket five days later; to a further breach of the peace, again at Rothesay police office, on March 5 this year; and finally to breaching a bail condition by approaching an address in Montague Street on March 18.

Fiscal depute Nadine Dormer said the first breach of the peace, along with the vandalism to the cell sign, had occurred while Thomas was in custody in connection with an incident in which a window had been broken; five days later he had stolen a lump of cheese worth £4.18 from the Bridge Street supermarket.

Then, in March, Thomas had been arrested in connection with another matter, and on being taken into the police station and asked for his nationality for the required paperwork, had replied: "I'm a f***ing Buddhist."

Ms Dormer said Thomas had then become abusive when being searched by police, and had shouted: "I'll have the f***ing both of you - I know your face, when I see you in the street you're f***ing getting it."

Robert Dundas, defending, said the common thread running through all of Thomas's offending was that of making a nuisance of himself while under the influence of alcohol.

"He is not unintelligent," Mr Dundas said of his client. "He has a fairly good work ethic, and he has a family of which he is quite proud - indeed his daughter has given him advice in words of one syllable, as it were, as has his GP."

Sheriff John Herald imposed concurrent sentences of 150 hours' community service for the vandalism, breach of bail and breaches of the peace; on the charge of stealing the cheese, Thomas was admonished.