A MAN caught with a 'punching knife' in a Greenock street told a court hearing it belonged to someone he'd had a fight with — but refused to name him.

Gary Knox was accused of 'telling a fairytale' about how he came to be found in possession of the Class 1 offensive weapon in the middle of the afternoon.

Prosecutor Frankie Morgan also quizzed the 30-year-old about how he could remember every detail of the claimed altercation when he says he was drunk at the time.

Knox had been ordered to testify at a special hearing after a sheriff refused to accept at face value his explanation for having the weapon, which is banned in Britain.

He said he had a 'dispute' with another man at a house party and had gone home to get a phone charger before coming across him in the street as he returned to the bash.

Knox told the sheriff court: "Both of us were drunk and as we grappled I saw something fall out of his pocket or jumper and I picked it up."

He said the unnamed man then went across the road to retrieve a bottle which he says he thought was going to be thrown at him.

Knox added: "I started to run and I heard the bottle smashing but I just kept on running."

He told the court that he hid the knife in a lane off South Street, but was seen by a boy on a bike and a woman looking out of a window.

Knox added: "I kind of panicked because my prints were on it, so I went back to retrieve it."

The dagger has a 'T' handle which is grasped so that the blade protrudes from the fist.

A previous hearing heard how a member of the public alerted passing patrol officers to a man holding it 'between his fingers' on South Street.

Knox was arrested at around 3.15pm on February 22.

He told the proof hearing: "I took a few steps closer to the police and threw it to the ground in front of them."

Responding to fiscal depute Mr Morgan's question about his very precise recollection of events, he said: "I pieced it together — it came back to me."

Asked why he wasn't naming the man he says he fought with, Knox said: "He comes from a big family and I don't want any repercussions."

Mr Morgan said: "You said you had to go home for a charger, was it really for the knife?"

Knox said: "No."

Mr Morgan said: "You've told a fairytale about this grappling."

Again Knox replied: "No."

Sheriff Andrew McIntyre decided that a fine was 'appropriate given the unusual circumstances'.

The sheriff concluded that there was no evidence to refute the explanation and noted Knox's 'good work ethic'.

First offender Knox, of Paton Street, was fined £450.