Staff and customers at a Dunfermline tanning salon were left anxious and afraid when a sleazy male entered the store seeking prostitutes.
Kudakwashe Pise called over a 25-year-old customer as she entered the Sun Shack – now TanXpress – on Allan Crescent.
After she had been for a tan and warned the lone woman running the solarium, Pise entered and made his intentions clear.
During a trial, the 37-year-old claimed he had simply been sent by his wife to an African food store on the street but could not find it.
It was just four units along the road.
Pise’s defence was rejected and he was found guilty at Dunfermline Justice of the Peace court of breaching the Prostitution (Public Places) Scotland Act 2007.
‘Lady bar’
The trial heard evidence from a 25-year-old woman who explained she arrived at the salon at around 8pm on December 20 last year.
She said: “I had been dropped off by one of my friends to go for a sunbed.
“There was a man outside in a car – it was directly outside the sunbed shop.
“The window was down and he was gesturing to get my attention.
“He said ‘come here.’ I said ‘no’.
“I proceeded to go into the sunbed shop. A girl I know was working. I told her, ‘be careful’.”
The woman said that after her sunbed, Pise was still parked outside and the employee said a previous customer had “said something similar had happened to her.”
The witness continued: “More customers were coming in and then he entered the shop.
“I said this is the guy. He didn’t say anything at first.
“I just stood with (the employee). She served the other girls that were going in.
“He came in and I think he said something along the lines of ‘how are you?’
“He asked if there was a lady there, he’d been told it was a lady bar.
“Someone had told him to come there because there were ladies there.”
She said he left the shop but remained outside in his car.
“I phoned the police after that. As I was on the phone to police, the car started slowly driving away.
“It seemed like he was looking for a brothel.”
Staff member ‘shocked and scared’
The employee, who no longer works at the salon, also gave evidence.
“There were a few customers in front of him.
“People had told me he was outside, I didn’t want to make much conversation.
“He said to me he’s told there’re ladies that work here, he’s told this is a lady bar, that his friend had told him it’s the sunbed shop.”
She explained Pise was advised to leave and did.
The woman added: “He sat in his car for maybe another 10 minutes.
“I was quite anxious, felt quite uncomfortable. When he came in, I was quite shocked and scared.”
Searching for African store
Pise, who did not have a lawyer, gave evidence that he had moved to Dunfermline the month before.
He said his wife had sent him to an African food store with only a postcode.
Pise explained he asked both the sunbed shop customer and employee for directions to Al-Falah – a shop four doors along with prominent signage.
Justice of the Peace Joyce Petrie convicted Pise, of Pittencrieff Street in Dunfermline of loitering so that in all the circumstances it could be reasonably inferred he was doing so for the purposes of obtaining the services of a person engaged in prostitution.
The JP said: “I have to say, I didn’t believe your version of events.”
Pise, who works part-time, was fined £200.
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