Dundee shooting hoax man's sentence deferred
A man who sparked a police incident after hacking into his ex-partner's Facebook account and sending false claims to his sister has avoided jail.
Posing as his former girlfriend, Robert Herd claimed he was out in the street shooting a gun in the air.
Herd, of Weavers Yard, Dundee, admitted sending the Facebook message in August.
The 26-year-old had his sentence deferred until March for him "to be of good behaviour".
After searching the alleged scene, police located his ex-partner who was totally unaware of any incident.
Fiscal depute Bill Kermode told Dundee Sheriff Court that officers then traced Herd at his flat in Dundee.
He said: "Due to the information that he may be in possession of a firearm officers went to his address and found him at home.
"He was home alone and said he had been all day. He was taken to police HQ and his phone was seized.
"He was asked by police: 'Do you understand this message caused Bethany Herd to be upset and frightened so much that she believed you were standing out on a public street with a gun?'
"Herd replied: 'It's my wee sister - of course she's upset by it all'."
Herd, who was on bail at the time of the offence, had pleaded guilty to a charge of sending grossly offensive, abusive or menacing messages over Facebook to his sister.