A man who took revenge on female colleagues by urinating into their water bottles was caught out by a hidden CCTV camera, a court has heard.

Engineer James Tainsh was branded "absolutely disgusting" by a judge after he admitted tampering with the water bottles belonging to office staff at his work in Grangemouth.

Falkirk Sheriff Court was told how Tainsh, 64, was caught on CCTV getting empty water bottles and used cups out of a bin, urinating in them, and putting them back on female workers' desks at a hire company.

The court heard two workers at the firm had complained that items on their desks were being interfered with after they went home in the evening and bottles of water they had left to use again the next day were "smelling funny".

As a result of his employees' concerns, the manager of the company rigged up a temporary, hidden CCTV system in the office on October 17.

When it was checked the next day, Tainsh, who had been working late, was seen unzipping his trousers and urinating into the bottles he had retrieved from the bin and putting them on the women's desks after he had finished with them.

He did the same with partially full water bottles that were sitting on top of their desks, and at one point he could been seen on CCTV taking an empty chewing gum container out of a bin, performing a sex act with it and putting it on one of the women's desks.

The court heard the conduct had been going on for some time before Tainsh was apprehended.

Prosecutor Samanatha Brown said: "The inference was that the women may well have drunk out of bottles affected.

"What drew their attention was that bottles that had been left on their desks had been moved around."

The court heard one of the two women had suffered sickness and stomach trouble after Tainsh was caught but it could not be said if this was due to drinking contaminated water or the stress of thinking she might have done.

Sheriff Derek Livingston said: "The mere possibility would be enough. In a normal workplace, you don't expect bottles to be adulterated in this way."

He added: "Both these women suspected there was something wrong with their bottles but they were not unreasonable to assume that a bottle that was sitting on their desk the previous day would be OK to use."

Simon Hutchison, defending, said Tainsh had lost his job at the firm where he had worked for 22 years and was now working with a relative who is a gas engineer.

After reading the background reports, the sheriff said he was concerned by Tainsh's "lack of contrition".

He said: "His attitude to the offence seems to be almost one of justification - that it's one of the women's fault because he thought she was flirting with him."

Mr Hutchison interjected: "Or flirting with someone else and he wasn't happy about it."

Tainsh, of Wishart Drive, Braehead, Stirling, was arrested and spent two days in custody before pleading guilty to breach of the peace.

Sentencing him on Thursday, Sheriff Livingston told Tainsh: "I am very tempted to impose a custodial sentence - your behaviour was absolutely disgusting."

Tainsh was ordered to pay £1500 compensation to each of the two women and carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

He was also placed on the sex offenders register and under supervision for three years.