A MAN has been banned from contacting his ex-girlfriend for the next two years after his refusal to accept the relationship was over landed him in court.

Scott Carrick bombarded his ex with texts, emails and phone calls every day for several weeks after she dumped him – before confronting the woman while she was out walking with her new partner.

He persisted with his behaviour even after his former partner warned him she would call the police – and he was eventually arrested while he was at work.

The 34-year-old appeared in the dock at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to “a course of conduct which caused [her] fear and alarm” between March 2 and April 5.

Fiscal depute Ian Meacock, prosecuting, said the woman had told Carrick on March 2 their relationship was over, but she then received “countless” phone calls and text messages on a daily basis from Carrick, pleading to be given another chance.

Mr Meacock said: “The complainer told the accused she would contact police and seek an order against him if he continued. The accused failed to listen.

“The complainer blocked his mobile number halfway through this period but the accused began to use email to contact her.”

Mr Meacock then described an incident at Mugdock Country Park, near Milngavie, on March 9 in which Carrick confronted the woman and a man Mr Meacock described as “a friend”.

“The missed calls and blocked calls continued until March 31,” Mr Meacock continued. “On April 1 the accused received calls from a payphone and the accused was on the line. She made it clear she did not want to be contacted, and on April 2 she said ‘get this through your thick skull – leave me alone or I’ll go to the police’.”

Carrick’s ex received a 1,100-word email from him in response to that, and she then rang police.

But the woman, who, according to Mr Meacock, had discovered gifts left at her car on one occasion, then found a bunch of flowers on her car on April 5, and received an email saying “I left you flowers, just to say sorry”.

Police then went to Carrick’s workplace and arrested him on April 6, when he told them: “I haven’t done anything wrong. I love her and want to be with her.”

Carrick’s solicitor, Brian McGuire, said the relationship between the pair, who had been living together in Old Kilpatrick, had “continued in a perfectly ordinary fashion” until December, when the woman took up body-building and began going to a gym at 4.30am every day.

“The whole dynamic of the relationship changed around that time,” Mr McGuire said, “and he didn’t know what was going on.”

“He subsequently became aware when she had moved out that she had started another relationship. He was having difficulty accepting that situation and was making attempts to persuade her to come back.

“He was trying to retrieve a situation that was never going to be retrieved.

“What transpired came as something of a shock to him, but he seems now to have come round to the realisation that the relationship is at an end and he expresses his regret and remorse.”

Sheriff John Hamilton granted a Crown motion for a two-year non-harassment order against the Dumbarton Road resident, and deferred sentence for six months for good behaviour.

The sheriff told Carrick: “There is no doubt this was unpleasant for the complainer. “If it has got through your thick skull, as the complainer put it, that this conduct was deeply inappropriate, we will deal with this in six months. If there is any contact, or any hint of contact, all options remain open.”