A TRANENT man approached two schoolboys and challenged them to fight with him while he was in possession of a screwdriver and a BB gun.

Lewis Sives confronted the two children while they were on their lunch break on the town’s New Row on June 18.

Sives told one boy “fight me and I’ll give you a grand” before he called them “sh***bags” when they declined his offer.

The 34-year-old was seen with a screwdriver during the incident and was also spotted “spinning a [BB] gun” in his hand before putting the weapon into his waistband.

Sives appeared from custody at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last Monday, where he pleaded guilty to the offence and sentence was deferred for reports by Sheriff Wendy Sheehan.

But Sives, of Coronation Place, Elphinstone Road, was handed custodial sentences during the court hearing after he also admitted to a series of other offences.

'Staggering around'

The court was told that Sives turned up at The Wee Shop on the town’s Blawearie Road at about 7am on March 5 and was seen “staggering around the shop”.

He was asked to leave by shopkeeper Deepak Kumar but responded by telling the employee “you will get stabbed”, though the court heard that no weapon was produced.

The court heard that Sives also threatened to burn the shop down during his outburst.

He was then caught on a doorbell camera outside a home on Caponhall Court at about 3am and trying a door handle at a house on nearby Meetinghouse Drive half an hour later on March 17.

The court heard that Sives admitted to two offences where it could be reasonably inferred he was intending to commit theft at the properties.

Five days later, on March 22, Sives made threats to employees at the Lidl store on Newhailes Road in Musselburgh by stating “I’ve got a needle and I’ll stab you” after being told to leave the premises.

'Heavily under the influence'

Further offences saw Sives entering the Co-op store on Brotherstone's Way in Tranent and, after being recognised and asked to leave, he told one employee “I’ve got a needle and I’m going to stab you” on August 7 last year.

At about 3pm on August 12 last year, Sives then turned up at the Aldi store on the town's Haddington Road and, after being told to leave the store, he pushed a female worker and told her to “f*** off”.

The following day, the court heard that the offender stole five bottles of vodka from an Asda warehouse on the town’s High Street on two separate occasions.

Lawyer Matthew Nicholson said that his client was a long-term drug user who had been addicted to heroin in the past but had recently been using crack cocaine, Valium and alcohol.

Mr Nicholson said that Sives was currently serving a custodial sentence and his earliest release date was April next year.

The solicitor said that Sives had been “heavily under the influence” of substances at the time of the offending and, following a break in his criminal behaviour, he had “fallen back in with old associates”.

The court heard that Sives was now engaging with drug rehabilitation services while in prison.

Sheriff Sheehan deferred sentence on the incident involving the two schoolboys to December 17 for reports to be prepared.

The sheriff then issued a total custodial sentence of 62 weeks for all the other offences that will run concurrently to his current jail sentence.