Bartender menaced with fake gun after refusing to serve Prosecco

A drunk man threatened a bartender with a fake gun after he was refused a glass of Prosecco at a yacht club in Dorset last month.

Oliver George, 26, the son of a millionaire market owner, was reportedly visibly drunk when he was refused service at the Sandbanks Yacht Club in Poole on 20 September.

George then lifted his top and showed the bartender the handle of pistol tucked into the waistband of his trousers and told the bartender: “Don’t be a pussy, give me a drink.”

The bartender served him and then called the police when George departed. Armed police then arrested George at his family home nearby.

He appeared in Poole magistrates court this week on charges of possessing an imitation firearm in public for which he now faces a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

Although pleading guilty to the offence, in mitigation his defence counsel, Terry Scanlan, said that he (George), “does not believe there is any linkage between this and his request for alcohol”.

The magistrates agreed to delay sentencing until 4 December to allow George to head off on a month-long family holiday in the Caribbean, which had been planned and paid for before the offence in question.

Scanlan continued that during the holiday he will be seeing a doctor, “who has been involved with Mr George in the past”, “three times a week” to treat “alcohol-related issues”.