A SELF-DECLARED prankster bombarded a Dunfermline restaurant with phone calls for a full year.

However, the laughing stopped for would-be joker Graeme Ford when he appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court and was fined £500.

The restaurant owner “would go mental” over his calls, police were told by Ford, but there was no explanation as to why he targeted the business.

Shop worker Ford, 26, of Caroline Crescent, Alva, admitted that between February 1 last year and February 1 this year at The Olive Tree, St Leonard's Street, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner in the course of repeated phone calls to Ferdous Oskooi and repeatedly made offensive remarks.

Depute fiscal Dev Kapadia said the owner, Mr Oskooi, was receiving phone calls from a withheld number repeatedly.

“He contacted police about a number of these calls,” he added.

Officers received information which led to them tracing Ford as the person responsible for the calls.

He initially denied his involvement saying he used to make “prank calls” but had stopped that.

Ford added: “It’s always been a party trick. I’m good at pranking people, putting on stupid voices and stupid impressions.”

Ford then admitted he did phone the Olive Tree. “I used to say ‘Diarrhoea pizza’ and he would go mental,” he told officers.

Mr Kapadia added: “The accused was right about the complainer’s reaction to the calls. He became extremely angry.”