By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:38, Monday, 21 January 2013

A man who narrowly avoided being sent to prison for taking a gun to a nightclub has been back in court for failing to abide by the terms of the sentence he was given.

Keiran Cleminson, 20, was given a 16-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, last July after he pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm and ammunition in a public place, carrying a knife in a public place and causing criminal damage by taking pot shots at a waste bin in a car park.

He was also ordered to do 200 hours unpaid community work, put under an 8pm to 7am curfew to keep him indoors at home every night for 12 weeks and made to pay £500 court costs.

A court heard Cleminson, of Currock Road, Carlisle, had strolled up to the Kiss club in Englishgate Plaza, off Botchergate, with the semi-automatic air pistol in a white carrier bag.

When door supervisor Margaret Fawcett challenged him about it he walked away and she called the police.

They arrested him – drunk – in Botchergate shortly afterwards, still with 13 pellets in the gun, which had its safety catch off.

By then he had also been taking pot shots at a waste bin in the car park outside the Big Al’s sports bar, damaging it under a fusillade of about 30 pellets.

Cleminson was warned that if he broke the conditions of the suspended sentence he could be made to serve the 16 weeks in custody.

But he was back at the city’s Crown Court on Friday for “stupidly” breaking those conditions by failing to attend appointments with his probation officers on two occasions.

It led probation staff to say: “Having been given a chance by the court it is an unhappy surprise to find that his co-operation has been so poor.”

Prosecution barrister Tim Evans said that despite his failings the probation service were willing to give him another chance “if he is minded to show the sort of motivation we expect of him”.

Judge Peter Davies decided not to make Cleminson to serve the suspended prison sentence.

Instead he ordered him to do an extra 25 hours unpaid community work

He told him: “You must understand that this is your last chance. There will be no further breaches tolerated.”

First published at 12:00, Monday, 21 January 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk