Female forecourt store worker threatened with screwdriver

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court was told staff locked 33-year-old Adam Smith inside the Esso garage shop, in Bucknall in Stoke-on-Trent, when they saw him place jars of coffee worth £37.90 in his bag.

He then became “angry and aggressive” and pushed a female worker in the chest before brandishing the screwdriver at her.

A member of the public came into the shop and helped to restrain Smith until the police arrived.

Smith, who had stolen meat from the nearby Farmfoods supermarket just before this incident, was jailed for 11 months. He admitted making threats with a bladed or pointed article, common assault and two counts of theft.

Judge David Fletcher sentenced Smith to 10 months in prison for the threats with a bladed article, with concurrent sentences of four months for each of the thefts and the assault. He was also handed an additional month for a breach of a suspended sentence order.

He told the defendant: “These matters were very much related to your longstanding and serious drug abuse. Your behaviour on this particular day was clearly an extremely worrying experience for the person who was threatened.”