NEIGHBOURS were woken in the early hours of the morning by a man banging on a door and bellowing “give me some money”, a court heard.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that Gordon Leadbetter had lost his bank card and had arranged to have his benefits paid into the bank account of a relative of his former partner.

But when he failed to receive the cash on time, the 41-year-old decided to go to the woman’s home in the Stoneybank area of Musselburgh and demand he be paid.

Neighbours were woken up with Leadbetter shouting, swearing, banging on the front door of the property and loudly demanding “give me some money” at about 5.45am on September 7 last year.

Police were alerted to the disturbance and arrived on the scene about an hour later, where they eventually traced the offender to a nearby street.

'No way to behave'

Lawyer Jonathan Campbell, representing Leadbetter, said that his client had been having trouble with a lost bank card and had become “upset and angry” at not receiving his money when he needed it.

The solicitor said that the early-morning disturbance was “a relatively isolated incident” and Leadbetter, of the town’s Stoneybank Place, had “struggled with drug addiction in the past”.

The court was told that Leadbetter was now engaging with the drug agency MELD and was being tested for illicit substances on a regular basis.

Sheriff Douglas Keir said: “Whatever your grumble was, this was no way to behave in the early hours of the morning, or at any time really.

“But I am prepared to deal with this with the imposition of a financial penalty.”

Leadbetter was fined £250.