A MAN who spat on a police worker has been jailed.

David Martin, 40, of Corden Avenue, Cardenden, had threatened a woman outside a Kelty pub and then continued the bad behaviour when he was taken to Dunfermline Police Station.

Appearing for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, he had previously admitted that on August 1, 2020 at the Kings Bar in Kelty Main Street, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner when he shouted and swore and uttered threats of violence towards a woman.

He also failed to provide two specimens of breath and assaulted a police custody support officer by spitting on his body.

Solicitor Alan Davie said his client had collected a friend and taken him to the pub. On driving there, he discovered there was a mechanical issues with his vehicle which led to him parking up before going into the pub and consuming a "notable" quantity of alcohol.

He had later gone to the vehicle and a woman had come out who was concerned about Martin driving.

"An altercation took place as a consequence of that," Mr Davie told the Court. "He is able to recognise he went over the score of what was appropriate. His description of events is he went from zero to 100 like that.

"He is very concerned looking back about how quickly the anger escalated and he made a number of comments towards the complainer that he is ashamed of and embarrassed by."

When police arrived, Martin was adamant he had not been driving so shouldn't need to give a breath test. He had claimed he was dehydrated in the police station and spat to demonstrate this to the custody support officer.

"Perhaps the only positive is he hit the arm of the clothing and not in the face but it is none the less a disgusting offence which he recognises," added Mr Davie.

"He is someone who does have something of a history of various offending but there has been a bit of a slow down in the recent past."

Sheriff Charles McNair jailed Martin for a total of 320 days and banned him from driving for 16 months.

"You have a very bad record including a record of violence or disorder and road traffic offending," he said. "In my view, looking at it as a whole, there is no appropriate alternative but a custodial sentence."