A stalker posed as a woman's son to send undertakers to collect her dead body when she was still alive.

James Leslie refused her pleas to stop contacting her after a short relationship and friendship didn't work out.

The 43-year-old, from Strathblane, Stirlingshire, claimed he had terminal cancer in a desperate bid to maintain contact and told her he had weeks to live.

Leslie called the woman, of East Dunbartonshire, around 150 times over a seven-week period while also sending her cards and flowers.

The 44-year-old reported Leslie to the police after a call was made to Jonathan Harvey funeral directors by a man claiming to be her son, asking them to collect his mother's body from the house.

When two undertakers appeared at the door on May 12, she was out meeting a friend and her children answered the door.

The woman told the court: "I was shocked and scared, not only for myself but for my children.

"I didn't have any idea what was going to happen next, I felt like anything would happen."

After a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Leslie was unanimously convicted of stalking the woman between April 1 and May 12.

Sheriff Martin Jones QC handed Leslie a three-year community payback order with 300 hours of unpaid work, the requirement to go on a court appointed programme and a tag to stay in his house between 9pm and 6am for six months.

He was also given a non-harassment order not to contact her for five years.

The sheriff said: "This richly deserves custody, you have got a directly analogous offence and seem to have learned nothing from that.

"The only thing that saves you is being the carer for your young daughter."

Leslie, who has a previous conviction for stalking from 2013, contacted the woman on Facebook in February 2016.

The pair knew each other from school and tried to start a relationship.

She said a "gut feeling" told her she should not continue with the partnership and asked Leslie to just be friends.

She asked Leslie, who would phone her multiple times a day, to stop calling her.

Fiscal depute Mark Allan asked: "How would you describe the nature of that communication in general terms?"

She replied: "Relentless would be the word I would use."

The woman added: "It was exhausting me. It clearly took up a lot of my time. If I didn't answer the calls it would escalate to him sending me messages.

"So often I would end up phoning him back because otherwise it just didn't stop."

She continued: "At the time they were left there was a whole range of emotions. I was worried that he would never ever stop contacting me.

"I tried to block his number but voice messages still came through and I changed my phone number.

"I just felt completely stressed and worried, but also Jim told me he had terminal cancer so i felt like a pretty terrible person because I felt like no matter what he had done, I was turning my back on someone who had literally weeks to live."