A TEENAGER who terrified diners by waving a gun in a caf has been sentenced to community service.

Customers looked on in horror as Geoffrey Chislett, 19, brandished the weapon, which fires ball bearings.

Kate Brown, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Chislett went into the Farmhouse Caf, High Street, Melksham, with friends at lunchtime on December 10 last year.

She said they were rowdy and noisy and customers complained.

"A worker at the caf spotted an item on the table, and realised it was a gun," she said.

"She saw him waving it in the air. She was concerned for her safety and her customers'. The youths were told to leave, which they did, so she could close the door behind them."

Chislett, who she said was clearly drunk, was arrested about 45 minutes later in the Pembroke Road area and the gun was recovered from a car park, where it had been dumped.

She said that in interview he told police he had been drinking with two friends and that they had a gun with them which he had picked up, but he denied waving it about.

At an earlier hearing he admitted possession of the weapon and conceded he had waved it.

The court heard that Chislett, of King Street, Melksham, had previous convictions for possessing drugs, shoplifting and being drunk and disorderly, but no firearms offences.

James Townsend, defending, said: "This was drunk, loutish behaviour which was very unpleasant for the people at the caf. When he has had a drink he is a nuisance but there is another side to him."

Chislett pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.

Sentencing him to 200 hours' community service, Judge Peter Thomas said: "You can't drink, you know, can you? When you drink you get very drunk and you behave in a stupid way. You had better learn better otherwise you are going to be in serious trouble. Then you won't have someone like me saying it is stupid horseplay, but that you are an evil young man and must go to prison for a long time."