A DUNFERMLINE woman who bombarded a man with sex messages after a room renting scam later brandished a knife as she shouted in the street.

Louise Ramsay, 34, of Kellock Avenue, was back in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing for a series of offences.

She admitted previously that on December 1 last year, she stole £340 in cash, that on February 12, she stole £525 and that on February 28, she stole £350.

She also admitted that on March 7, she sent a number of text messages to a man which were sexual in nature.

Ramsay also admitted that on Christmas Eve at Abel Place, she shouted and swore while brandishing a knife.

The court heard previously that Ramsay stole money from people after advertising her spare room as available to rent.

One of the victims was also bombarded with explicit sexual messages.

Depute fiscal Jill Currie told the court previously: “The thefts relate to the accused renting out a spare room at her home.”

People would agree to stay there, pay money in advance but were then not allowed to move in, without being re-paid.

Ramsay had used the ‘Spare Room’ website and also Facebook to advertise the accommodation.

In one case, a young man who had agreed to take the room began receiving sex messages from Ramsay after he had already paid money.

He felt “uncomfortable” and “asked her to remain professional”, said the depute.

She then asked him for more money but he refused.

Her sex messages continued. “You’re grown-up for your age but I like that,” she wrote, adding his youth “turns me on”.

Ramsay made comments about his genitalia and said she could “teach him a thing or two” before going into graphic detail.

She continued in this vein and the man “felt this was extremely inappropriate”, said the depute.

He asked for his money back but Ramsay made various excuses about why she could not do this over the following weeks.

In the Christmas Eve incident, Ramsay was shouting and screaming in the street holding a knife which she threw to the ground and picked up several times.

She was shouting: “I’ve got mental health.”

Defence solicitor Alexander Flett said: “She seems to have got it into her head that she was being followed. She had taken cocaine to excess. It’s a fairly sad tale.”

The social work report had recommended sending Ramsay to jail for her own good but Sheriff Charles Macnair said he would not be following that course.

Instead, he put Ramsay on an eight-month restriction of liberty order. He also ordered her to pay a total of £900 compensation to the three people who lost money in the scam and put Ramsay on the sex offenders’ register.