A former soldier who caused people to take cover when he began firing a rifle on the beach at Great Yarmouth has been remanded in prison.

Albert Ciorvasi, 43, was denied bail at Thames Magistrates’ Court in London after failing to appear to be sentenced for seven offences. 

The former officer in the Romanian army was arrested after police swooped on the seafront on September 30 last year when other people on the sands reported hearing shots being fired.

He later told officers he had been using the .22 weapon with a telescopic sight to shoot from a distance as target practice.

READ MORE: Beachgoers flee as former Romanian soldier fires rifle on Great Yarmouth sands

He pleaded guilty of unloading an air weapon in a public place at Norwich Magistrates’ Court in October.

The London court was told he had also admitted a string of other offences committed in Great Yarmouth between September 30 and October 17 including burglary, shop theft, three thefts from motor vehicles, criminal damage to a car windscreen and attempting to break into another car.

He will be sentenced at Great Yarmouth Magistrates’ Court on January 26.