THE former groundsman for the Scottish cricket team has been banned from approaching children after being caught filming a young boy with a high-tech camera in a changing room.

Kenny Nisbet dangled the pinhead device in a sock over the cubicle partition to video the 13-year-old as he changed at Ainslie Place Leisure Centre in Edinburgh.

The 46-year-old then tried to escape detection by sneaking out of the cubicle when pool attendants tried to question him.

He later claimed to police he had just been trying it out and had no a young boy was in the next cubicle.

But when police arrived at his home to quiz him on the allegations, they found more than 250 indecent images of children on his computer.

Nisbet quit his job with Grange Cricket Club in shame once the allegations came to light. He has also been banned from his volunteer work with the Scouts.

Dubbed “the king of cricket pitches”, Nisbet had won awards for his work at the Grange Cricket Club and had been commended by the England Cricket Board for his groundsman work during his seven-year spell there.

Yesterday, he was handed 160 hours community service and put on probation for three years at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after admitting a breach of the peace and possession of indecent images.
As part of the probation, he was told not to contact anyone under 16 unless supervised, ordered to undergo therapy and warned his computer equipment would be monitored.

On the computer images found by police, Sheriff Derrick McIntyre said: I consider the users as bad as the abusers without the former we would not have the latter.

Nisbets alarming behaviour was discovered in February this year when staff at the Edinburgh swimming pool were alerted to him by a 13-year-old swimmer.

The boy had claimed he had been changing when he noticed a sock hanging over the partition wall with what looked like a lens protruding through a hole.

Shaken up by the site, the boy ran off to tell a member of staff and get his dad, who had been waiting outside for him.

When the pool attendant approached the cubicle, there was no answer when they knocked although it was still locked.

Suspecting he had slipped through the gap into another empty booth, they waited outside until Nisbet emerged.

No camera was found on him during a search but staff took down his details and informed the police.

When officers attended at his house, Nisbet admitted the offence and insisted he had only been experimenting with the camera to see if it worked.

He admitted he had bought the pinhead camera over the internet but claimed he had no idea it was a young boy who had been changing in the next cubicle.

Police doubted his story though and took away his computer for further investigation.

Saved on his computer where 240 still images and 25 movie files of child pornography.

When quizzed further by police, Nisbet said: I wouldnt say it was a sexual thing, just a curiosity. Maybe a sexual curiosity.

His solicitor, Caroline Kwek, insisted that his clients interest were purely voyeuristic and that he had no intention of actually touching any boys.

He said: He has lost his job and is going to have to sell his home.

He was well-regarded at his work and received commendations for his work. But he has few friends and has no experience of an intimate relationship.

Sheriff McIntyre accepted that prison was not in the best interest of either the public or Nisbet and put him on probation.

Nisbets conviction has stunned the Scottish cricketing fraternity in which he has become a popular figure and is well-known among the national team.

Nisbet has twice won awards from the England Cricket Board for the condition of the Saltires track at Citylets Grange ground in Edinburghs plush Stockbridge area.

Only the Oval and Headingly have been rated higher by the leading cricket authority and his efforts for the team have roundly praised by Cricket Scotland.

Nisbet had been determined to make the Grange the countrys premier cricketing ground and oust the Oval from top place.

After the last award in 2006, he said: Its quite an honour for me and for Scottish cricket to get the commendation two years in a row.

But it just makes me more determined to get the main award and thats what I have to aim for next season.”

Nisbet had been groundsman at Grange since 2000 after a spell at Edinburgh Academy.

As an employee of the Grange, it was his job to prepare the pitches for the Scottish Saltires, who play their games at the Stockbridge ground.

A club official at the Grange confirmed that Nisbet quit his post earlier this year.

AS THE new hovercraft between Fife and Edinburgh sped beyond Leith towards its Portobello landing point, memories of a bygone era were left in its wake at the once booming docks.

LEITH BUILT: Robb Caledon launched RRS Bransfield in 1970

The area of Leith, and the docks in particular, has seen a transformation like no other in recent times. Once regarded as a rough port town and haunt of prostitutes, it has become one of the trendiest areas of Edinburgh, with the upwardly young mobile flocking to live in the converted warehouses and eat out along the Shore where sailing vessels can be seen berthed alongside the quay.

The days of trains, cranes and automobiles weaving their way around an array of docked ships being loaded and unloaded may have passed, but for Ronald Douglas that may be no bad thing. As the crowded shot of Bernard Street from 1958 shows, Mr Douglas had a lucky escape after his good deed turned into a disaster, when his learner driver, Miss Janet Burton, took a sharp left and ploughed into the docks.

Luckily for the pair, they were saved by their bustling surroundings, as workmen raced from nearby ships to come to their aid.

FLOODED THE ENGINE: A learner takes a wrong turn in 1958

Accidents were part of life around the docks, but few stranger than two years later when a goods train veered of the rail lines into the icy Forth in 1960. Yet again locals came to the rescue.

Situated close to the docks, the main station for North Leith was at Commercial Street. The 1960 aerial view of the railway marshalling yard shows the lines as they weave in and out of the now unrecognisable docks. The North British Railway closed the station to passenger traffic in 1947, but it continued to be used for fish, wheat and other freight until the 1970s.

The delivery of such produce wasn’t a job for any mere mortal, with some of the bags weighing anything up to 15 stone. Instead, large fixed cranes were commonplace around the dock and were used to manoeuvre the bags from ship to lorry.

TRAIN YOUR SIGHTS: The railway marshalling yard in 1960

In 1968, freight services on the line running along the Water of Leith were withdrawn and the lines uplifted. The closure of the North Station, which was situated in Lindsay Road, close to the Ocean Terminal entrance to Leith Docks, heralded the beginning of quieter times at the Docks.

One of the shipyards that fought bravely to continue was the Henry Robb company. Known colloquially as Robbs, the British shipbuilding company was notable for building small-to-medium sized vessels.

The RRS Bransfield, which was built and launched from the docks in 1970, was a perfect example of its fine workmanship as the picture shows the ship embarking on its maiden voyage from the Forth

Robb’s built a large number of naval warships for the Royal Navy, and in 1968 purchased, and amalgamated with the Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Dundee, forming Robb Caledon Shipbuilding. The yard survived longer than any other until it finally closed in 1983.

FLOUR POWER: A crane unloads sacks of wheat in 1953

This brought to an end over 600 years of shipbuilding in Leith, with the land once occupied by Robb’s shipyard now home to the Ocean Terminal shopping centre, with the Royal Yacht Britannia moored alongside.

The original gateway is preserved in Dock Place, adjacent to the Leith Customs House, as trimmings within the redeveloped Victoria Quay area.

Steel, coal, cement and timber still arrive from countries of the European Union every day, with more than 50 cruise liners passing through each year and large numbers of naval vessels frequenting from all around the world.

All this activity was once complemented by a fleet of fishing boats, seen here moored at the entrance to the harbour.

At the turn of the 20th century, fleets of trawlers operated out of both Leith and Granton, but numbers dwindled steadily as larger ocean-going ships from other ports took over.

The mortgage meltdown hit consumers square in the face last week.

Investors essentially stopped buying nonconforming mortgages - those not guaranteed by agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - causing lenders to raise rates on these loans or stop making them altogether.

Some home buyers who were preapproved for a loan have had their applications rejected or seen their lenders close.

No one knows how long the chaos will last.

“Things could start improving tomorrow or it could last for a longer period,” says Jack Guttentag, who runs the Mortgage Professor’s Web Site.

If you’re in the market for a home loan, a home-equity loan or trying to refinance a mortgage, what should you do?

First the good news.

As of last week, the market for conforming mortgages was still operating smoothly, and if you qualify for one, you shouldn’t have trouble getting a mortgage at a reasonable price.

Conforming loans for single-family homes can’t exceed $417,000. Borrowers also must meet certain criteria that vary depending on the situation. In general, your FICO credit score must be 620 or higher, you must be able to document the income and assets you put on your loan application, and you must put down at least 5 percent of the purchase price, says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president with HSH Associates.

If you don’t pass all of these tests, you’ll probably pay more for a loan this week than you would have a week or two ago. Fail too many and you might not get a loan at all.

In the Bay Area, most home buyers don’t get conforming loans because real estate prices are too high and they have to borrow more than the limit. Mortgages that exceed $417,000 are called jumbo loans.

In the first half of this year, 62 percent of mortgages taken out for purchases in the Bay Area were jumbos, according to DataQuick Information Systems. In San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties, about 78 percent were jumbos.

Jumbo rates rose sharply last week.

The average rate nationwide on a 30-year fixed-rate jumbo loan jumped to 7.38 percent on Friday compared with 7.09 for the previous week, according to HSH Associates. During the same time frame, the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate conforming loan edged down to 6.61 percent from 6.68 percent.

The difference today between jumbo and conforming rates - roughly three-quarters of a percentage point - is about triple the normal disparity, says Keith Gumbinger, vice president with HSH. A puzzling increase

Some analysts are puzzled by the jump in jumbo rates because the default rate on prime jumbo loans - those made to borrowers with good credit - is extremely low and has barely budged over the past year.

In May, only 0.5 percent of prime jumbo loans were 60 or more days delinquent, compared with 1.2 percent of conforming prime loans and 16.3 percent of subprime loans, according to First American LoanPerformance.

If the only thing keeping you from getting a conforming loan is the size of your mortgage, consider waiting a week or two to see if rates settle.

“If you can put it off, even just a few weeks, do that. Markets may settle and the jumbo rates may return to normal levels relative to conforming mortgages,” says Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com.

If you can’t get a conforming loan because your credit score is too low, you can’t document your income and assets, or you can’t come up with a down payment, you’re in trouble.

“You used to be able to do a stated-income loan (with no documentation) up to 100 percent (of the purchase price) if you had good credit scores. It just can’t be done any more,” says Jason Bellevue, a mortgage broker with RAF Investment Services in Berkeley.

Ernest Williams, a part-time Realtor in El Sobrante, has a client in escrow on a home in Vallejo. In late May, the client was prequalified for a loan up to $450,000 with nothing down and no income verification. The client has “impeccable credit” and a FICO score over 750, Williams says.

On June 29, the client offered $417,000 for the house and his offer was accepted.

When the mortgage broker submitted his application to a lender the last week in July, he was turned down. The application was submitted to two more lenders last week and was rejected.

“He was declined because they wouldn’t do stated-income loans above 90 percent anymore,” Williams says.

“If he provided full documentation for his income, he wouldn’t qualify for the loan because he doesn’t make enough money,” Williams says.

The client is willing to put 5 percent down. “If he can’t get the seller to carry a second (mortgage) or come down on the price, he will have to walk away,” he says.

Even with good credit, most borrowers will have a hard time borrowing 100 percent of the purchase price today.

Until recently, it was fairly easy to get a first mortgage for 80 percent of the purchase price and a second mortgage for the remaining 20 percent, thus avoiding mortgage insurance that lenders require when a buyer puts down less than 20 percent.

“Richard Branson could still get an 80/20 mortgage. Joe Six-Pack can’t,” McBride says. “Most of us are looking at an 80/10/10,” which involves borrowing 80 percent of the price with a first mortgage and 10 percent with a second, and putting 10 percent down.

“If you have good credit and can document income, you can get 80/15/5,” McBride says. But in this case, you might be better off borrowing 95 percent, putting down 5 percent and getting private mortgage insurance, which generally can be canceled when your equity in the home reaches 20 percent.

The cost of mortgage insurance varies but is usually around 0.6 to 0.8 percent of the original loan amount each year. If you buy a home this year only and your income is less than $100,000, you can deduct mortgage insurance on your federal taxes.

If you’re buying a home, “leave more time than you ordinarily would” to shop for a loan and contact more lenders, Guttentag says.

Bellevue agrees. “There are still some lenders who are very aggressive on pricing, even in the jumbo market,” he says.

McBride recommends applying to three lenders, as long as you don’t pay more than one application fee, which is usually credited back if you take out the loan.

“That gives you a fallback option if one of them slams the door or jacks the rates suddenly,” he says. Comparing closing costs

Plus, applying for multiple loans “allows you to compare not just the rate and terms, but also closing costs. Once you apply, you get a good-faith estimate of closing costs,” McBride adds.

Ira Serkes, a Realtor with Re/Max in Berkeley, says buyers probably should not remove their loan contingencies until their loan is actually approved. In the Bay Area, many prequalified buyers have been removing loan contingencies to make their offers more competitive. But they could lose their deposit if they can’t get a loan and can’t buy the house.

Gumbinger says the best strategy might be waiting.

“The combination of higher rates and tighter credit should have the effect of putting downward pressure on home prices. Not that you’re going to find any outright deflation, but you might find that waiting yields easier credit conditions and lower prices.”

On the bright side, if you’re borrowing to refinance a mortgage and have substantial equity, you shouldn’t have a problem getting a reasonably priced loan.

Likewise, if you’re taking out a home-equity loan to make improvements or for other purposes not related to buying a house, you should not have a problem, although you won’t be able to borrow 100 percent of the home’s value. The chaos in the secondary mortgage market has not impacted home-equity loans because most banks keep them, Gumbinger says.

Net Worth runs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. E-mail Kathleen Pender at kpender@sfchronicle.com.