PRIVATELY educated Alexander Pacteau was 17-years-old when he left school and set up his own furniture business.

But within a matter of months, the wannabe entrepreneur's business dream was in tatters and he was in a coma.

It was the result of a car accident.

Pacteau, who suffered a broken hip and ribs, was in a coma for weeks and unable to walk for six months after the serious crash.

He found himself unable to work and was "too embarrassed" to tell his family that money was tight.

So the former Kelvinside Academy pupil devised a plan to forge bank notes worth £6000.

He was caught by police before he had the chance to try and spend any of the notes and pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to printing £20 Royal Bank of Scotland notes in March 2014.

His unsophisticated money-printing scheme is Pacteau's only previous conviction.

Around a year before he murdered Karen Buckley, Pacteau was spared jail and instead given a community payback order of 225 hours of unpaid work.

In court, he was described as a young man "from a good family" and there was no hint of the killer that he would become.

His defence lawyer said: "The root of this offence goes back to 2011 when Mr Pacteau was 17, he left school and embarked upon his own business enterprise with an online furniture business.

"He told me he felt ashamed that he had to sign on for benefits despite his injuries and circumstances he found himself in and did not want to admit this to his family so he put on the pretence he was running his own business again, successfully."

During the hearing, the court heard Pacteau intended to restart his furniture business.

He later moved into "courier business" but is understood to have been unemployed when he killed the Irish nurse.