Upset when bailiffs called at his home three times in a few days a Truro man telephoned the woman he held responsible for their visits and threatened to stab her and her children.

“You had better put your children in a cupboard before I come for them,” he told Kizzy Boon.

Billy Robert Sallis, 32, of Ventongoose Road, Truro, pleaded guilty at Truro Magistrates’ Court to sending threatening telephone calls to her on May 13 and 14.

Alison May, for the CPS, said when interviewed by the police afterwards, Sallis said the bailiffs’ visit had caused great upset to his family and at his home. “I just wanted the bailiffs to stop,” he said. He had previous convictions.

Lucy Bryant, his solicitor, said the debt alleged was not his and he was very upset. He had had no intention of carrying out his threats, and had just made throw-away remarks in the heat of the moment when he was extremely wound up.

He frightened himself by what he did and was now getting treatment for his behaviour. He was not a well man, having a serious bone disease in his jaw, and had not been very well at the time.

The magistrates put him under curfew for six nights a week for four weeks, and he had to pay £270 costs and charges.