An award-winning Perthshire chef who battered a man over the head with a cricket bat in a row over a car parking space has escaped a prison sentence.
William Deans, who won gold for Scotland at the culinary Olympics, assaulted letting agent Gary Cumming at the rear of his own restaurant on June 7 last year.
The pair had had a long running dispute over the use of a car park situated between Deans Restaurant, on Perth’s Kinnoull Street, and Mr Cumming’s Lettings Direct business
Mr Cumming had gone to the restaurant’s back door to get Deans to move both cars. Following a heated exchange, Deans picked up a cricket bat that was lying near the door after being left in his restaurant by a previous customer.
Yesterday at Perth Sheriff Court Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he acknowledged that the request was unlikely to have been polite but said Deans had “lost it”.
Sentencing the 53-year-old, Sheriff Foulis said: “This was a serious offence in which you assaulted and individual by striking him repeatedly on the head and body with a solid weapon.
“It may well have been a child’s cricket bat, but it was one which was used to repeatedly strike Mr Cummings – you lost it.
“The potential consequences of your actions could have been significant – thankfully in this instance they were not.
“I am persuaded that the appropriate way of dealing with this matter is with a direct alternative to custody.”
Solicitor David Holmes, representing Deans, said his client has spent the night in the cells with an undiagnosed fracture to his hand following the incident.
He added: “He accepts that he should have found another way to deal with the incident.
“It was out of character – rarely can I say this but it’s certainly a one off.”
The court also heard about Deans’ charity work, with him donating one day’s takings to charity each year.
Deans, of Glenorchil View, Auchterarder, was previously found guilty of assaulting Mr Cummings by repeatedly striking him on the head and body with a cricket bat to his injury on Carpenter Street, Perth.
He was ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work.
Deans formerly worked at the Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire and was head chef at the Buttery in Glasgow for a number of years.
He won Young Master Chef of the Year and was named Scottish Chef of the Year in 1995. He represented Scotland several times in the culinary Olympics, winning gold and a number of other medals.
