By Rory Cassidy

A BARRHEAD woman who disguised herself with black bin bags to hold up a shop in the town has gone unpunished over a drunken assault at a Paisley pub – and breaching the sentence she was originally given for the bar brawl.

Denise Caisley, 32, is already serving three years and 10 months for arming herself with two large knives and staging a raid on the Costcutters branch, in Cross Arthurlie Street.

She was locked up for the botched armed robbery at the High Court in Glasgow in March this year.

The bungled raid, which saw her fleeing empty-handed after she failed to get a till open, was committed in March 2016.

Just a few weeks before she tried and failed to hold shop staff to ransom, she was placed on a Community Payback Order (CPO) at Paisley Sheriff Court.

The CPO was imposed by Sheriff Susan Sinclair, over a crime spree which saw Caisley attacking a bar worker with her sandal – then attacking a police officer.

Caisley lost the plot in the Afton Bar, in Paisley’s Causeyside Street, on July 12, 2015.

And she was so out-of-control during her rampage that staff had to barricade the pub to stop her coming back in once she’d left the premises.

Caisley, who has lived in Barrhead’s Centenary Court and John Street, was approached by member of staff Andrew Horsburgh after entering the pub but, after being told she was too drunk, took off her sandal and attacked him with it.

Officers arrived at the scene and were given Caisley’s description, tracking her down nearby.

She was taken to Helen Street police office, in Glasgow’s Govan area, where she was searched by PC Robyn Howard.

And, once the search was finished, she callously told the female officer “this is for you” before lunging her head forward and spitting on the officer’s body.

Caisley was told to do 250 hours’ unpaid work, reduced from 300 as she admitted her guilt, within nine months as punishment for the offences.

But she did not comply with the CPO and found herself back in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court on Monday in connection with the case.

Defence solicitor Charlie McCusker said Caisley’s earliest date of release is January 2019.

And he said Caisley, who will also be monitored for a year upon her release from custody, is doing well in prison.

Sheriff Sinclair could have allowed the CPO to continue, deferred sentence until Caisley is released from custody and then impose another sentence, or jail her for not complying with the court order.

But the sheriff decided to take no action.

As she did so, Sheriff Sinclair said: “I was trying to avoid Miss Caisley ending up where she is, but that’s what’s happened.

“I’m not going to put something else in place just for the sake of it – I don’t think that’ll do any good.”

She revoked the CPO and made no further order, allowing Caisley to return to prison to finish her sentence.