The former company director has been found guilty of stalking a woman in Perth.
Michael Paton, 76, stood trial at Perth Sheriff Court, denying the offence and saying he was simply “too enthusiastic”.
The court heard he hounded his victim with messages, despite repeatedly being told to leave her alone.
He went to her home twice and asked her out while she was working in a city shop.
Paton, of Huntingtowerfield, near Perth, was found guilty of engaging in a course of conduct which caused the woman fear or alarm in September 2024.
He was fined and the court made a strict order to protect the woman from harassment from the semi-retired businessman for three years.
Weekend of pestering
Paton resigned as a director of Tayside and Fife body shop Elder and Paton in August 2023 and described himself as semi-retired.
He told the court he had been on a coffee date with the woman at the Tickled Trout in Almondbank before going back to his home on September 5 last year.
There, Paton touted possible trips to Elie, Spain and Australia.
He told the trial: “We just had a nice time, we both thought we got on really well.”
The woman told Paton she was seeing family that weekend and to pause contact until the following week.
However, the pensioner hounded her with messages about going on holiday to Spain together and told her: “I think we’re going to be an item.”
The woman told him “Please don’t keep messaging, this is too much too soon.”
After another message and a call from Paton, she told him: “This is so disappointing, I’ve asked you to leave things ’til next week. I will not be calling so please stop.”
Messages continued and she told him: “I want to take things slowly and feel you just won’t listen.
“I wanted this weekend with my family. The constant texts and calls are too much so I’d like to leave things but wish you all the best.”
Paton told her “you will not hear from me again” but later called.
“You’re doing it again,” the woman told him. “Leave me alone please until I speak to you.”
In the witness box, Paton said: “I was too enthusiastic and very keen on her. I was silly.
“I thought the world of the lassie. Sorry, I was overcome with it.”
Home and workplace visits
On September 8, he pulled up in his car beside the woman’s Perth home as she was closing her gates.
He claimed he was on his way to a nearby friend’s home and returned later with a bunch of flowers.
The day after that, he arrived at her workplace and on his way out, asked the woman if he could pick her up and take her to a restaurant when she finished.
The woman’s manager said Paton’s victim became “hysterical” and he was ordered to only deal with other staff if he returned.
‘Lonely man made silly choices’
Paton’s defence counsel Neil Shand argued stalking legislation did not criminalise behaviour which was annoying, frustrating or irritating.
He said: “Throughout our lives, we come into contact with individuals who annoy us or irritate us.
“To be alarmed has to be generally concerned in relation to safety or something that might occur in future.
“I think this is effectively a lonely man who has made silly choices.
“Alcohol played a part in it. He’s behaved as something of a drunken fool perhaps.
“There have been no bad intentions.”
‘No means no’
Sheriff Simon Collins KC convicted Paton and fined him £840 altogether.
The sheriff also made a non-harassment order lasting three years, protecting the woman and banning Paton from entering her workplace.
Sheriff Collins said: “The accused persisted in his advances.
“It seems to me Mr Paton crossed the line. No means no.
“It’s clearly likely to at least cause alarm.”
Last year, Paton was placed on a four month curfew when he peed in police van after being caught drink-driving for the second time.
That incident occurred weeks after his disqualification for his first drink-driving offence, for which he was fined £600, came to an end.
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