A MUSSELBURGH man who claimed he had lost tobacco within the town’s Aldi store ended up threatening staff who asked him to leave the premises.

Mark Green, of Stoneybank Terrace, turned abusive when staff asked him to leave the store during an incident last December.

His conduct was reported to police and he was arrested and charged. Last Tuesday, he appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Fiscal depute Lorna Ferrier told the court that Green arrived at the store and was spotted looking for something in the shelves of the tool section.

When challenged by staff, he claimed he had lost a packet of tobacco when he had been in the shop earlier and he had returned to look for the package.

Staff informed him nothing had been handed in and politely asked the 47-year-old man to leave the store.

But Green became abusive as he was being walked to the front door, where he “became angry and demanded to see the manager”.

Ms Ferrier said: “He was shouting and swearing and said: ‘I will be back to batter youse.’

“He then pushed an employee twice.”

Mary Moultrie, defending, said her client had taken issue with staff after claiming he was being “moved out of the store in a heavy-handed way”.

Ms Moultrie said that Green had been in the shop earlier that day and he believed he had lost a packet of tobacco within the store.

Sheriff Welsh dealt with the matter by fining Green £150.

Green pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by shouting, swearing, acting in an aggressive manner and uttering threats of violence at Aldi, Newhailes