A MAN found asleep in a taxi with a knife and drugs has been jailed for three years.

Stephen Barnes, 38, was taken from Clydebank to Dumbarton police office on November 25 last year in circumstances even Sheriff William Gallacher admitted last week were “unusual”.

Barnes, an inmate at Greenock prison, pleaded guilty at Dumbarton Sheriff Court last month to a series of offences that kicked off from the cab journey.

He took a taxi with no intention to pay the £14.90 fare and then fell asleep in the back. When the taxi arrived at Dumbarton police office, he was shouting and swearing and acting in an aggressive manner.

He was searched and found with a lock knife strapped to the right leg of his boxer shorts, as well as 6.04g of heroin and the class C drug Clonazolam.

Kenny Clark, defending, said: “He had been partying in Clydebank the previous night. He did have money on him but it was probably insufficient. He woke up and found a police officer going through his pockets and he reacted badly to that.”

Sheriff Gallacher pointed to Barnes’ convictions starting in 1996 for carrying knives, and on “more than one occasion involving violence.” As well as a jail term of three years, backdated to November 28, Barnes will be under supervision for a further 12 months.