A BEGGAR who repeatedly fired a Taser gun in York city centre during the early hours of New Year’s Day has narrowly avoided jail.

A judge at York Crown Court handed Craig Laing a 12-month prison sentence yesterday but suspended it for 18 months after hearing that the probation service could help him deal with a myriad of problems, including his use of alcohol and heroin.

He also gave Laing an 18-month community order involving supervision.

Nicholas Rooke, prosecuting, said Laing, 37, of Lowther Street, discharged the stun gun three times in Coney Street early on January 1 this year.

The incident started at 1.15am when a security doorman at Revolution bar saw Laing sitting on a church step and asking for money. Then he heard a crackling sound similar to that of a Taser being discharged.

At about 1.30am, four men walking past Laing were asked if they had any spare change, they said something back to him and he started an argument with them.

There was the crackling noise of a Taser and the four men ran off at speed, with Laing running after them with the stun gun in his hands.

He returned to the church with the stun gun in his right hand.

The police were called and officers found a stun gun in his pocket.

Mr Rooke said that Laing, who admitted possession of the weapon in breach of the Firearms Act, had 24 previous convictions for a total of 65 offences, including possession of a knife.

Laing’s solicitor advocate, Liam Hassan, said he had started using heroin when he was 14 and, since arriving in York in January 2014, had been dabbling in substances including heroin and alcohol, the latter of which had clearly played a part in the incident on New Year’s Day.

He said his client had come to court feeling down about overcoming his problems and believing being sent to prison could help him but now felt it would not address his problems.

“Quite frankly, he is desperate to do something,” he said.