A man said to have links with the Glasgow underworld stormed round with a gang to threaten staff at a rival Perth nightclub.
Barry Cushley made a series of violent threats and was abusive to staff during the altercation.
Cushley’s brother had been involved in the opening of a controversial and short-lived nightclub and the 36-year-old took it upon himself to act as enforcer.
Sheriff William Wood told Cushley: “It is a serious matter to turn up mob-handed and utter threats. It might yet attract a custodial sentence or something akin to that.”
Depute fiscal Stuart Richardson told the city’s sheriff court that a Glasgow firm opened the Karnival Klub in Perth and Cushley was associated with the company through his brother.
He said: “The opening was not without difficulties. Persons with flyers for other nightclubs were outside the new club, dishing them out to people going in.
“The fire alarm in the new club was being set off and that led to total evacuation of the premises. Deciding, rightly or wrongly, that other nightclubs in Perth might be behind these goings-on, he decided something should be done about it.”
He said Cushley and a group of men arrived at the Loft nightclub and he was verbally abusive to a young barmaid, ordering her to fetch the manager.
Stewards arrived to intervene and Cushley swore at them, too.
Mr Richardson said: “The manager did appear on the scene and, put it this way, Mr Cushley told him in no uncertain terms that if he was behind any difficulties with the new club he had better stop it.”
Cushley, 36, of Ingram Street, Glasgow, admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at the Loft nightclub in Perth on November 2 2013 by making threats and intimidating staff.
In 2008 Cushley was one of a number of men charged with drugs and money laundering offences but the case collapsed due to a lack of evidence.
He was further accused of kicking a woman in the head but the assault case against him also collapsed when his alleged victim repeatedly failed to turn up to give evidence against him.
Cushley and his younger brother, Thomas, were also involved in a probe at a nursing home they owned, where they were accused of claiming £47,000 of taxpayers’ cash for a resident who had died two years earlier.
Cushley was living in Scotland goalkeeper Allan McGregor’s £800,000 Glasgow flat when he was asked to leave after complaints about a noisy party by neighbours.
The court was told that Cushley had no previous convictions, other than for motoring offences, and sentence was deferred for reports.
Sheriff Wood said he would also consider a restriction of liberty order.
Christopher Stewart, 39, Danish Zafar, 22, Paul Cowie, 31, and Jonathan Malloy, 30, all appeared in the dock with Cushley but had charges against them dropped by the Crown.
The Karnival Klub opened in a former council building in Perth but closed within a few months after issues relating to licensing were raised by the local authority.