Sutton man jailed for second knife offence

Mark Ellis was detained by staff after he removed the packaging from £146 of goods at TK Maxx, on St Peter's retail park, Mansfield, and officers found the blade on him, on April 18.

"He described it as a pocket-knife he carries all the time and didn't know it was an offence to carry something like that in a public place," said prosecutor Daniel Pietryka.

Deborah Bell, mitigating, said Ellis was "a troubled young man with a significant offending past", who had previously managed retail premises in Oxfordshire, but after his marriage broke down, his wife stopped him from seeing his daughter.

She said: "He moved back up to Sutton, and unfortunately that was the worst thing he could have done. The drug addiction began again and so did the offending behaviour.

"He wants to get himself sorted out. He had been providing negative tests for drugs but he started using again when it came up to his daughter's birthday."

Ellis has a previous conviction for carrying a knife from 2002, Ms Bell said, but added that blade was part of a cigarette lighter, from a Skegness arcade.

"I am hoping that you won't impose the mandatory six months because of the passage of time," she said.

Probation officer Sarah Todd told magistrates Ellis had been engaging with a drug rehabilitation requirement, imposed in January.

"He is a harm to himself from using illicit substances," she said, adding he had come close to overdosing. "He has abstained from drug use for 14 days and needs help with housing."

Ellis, 36, of Swanson Avenue, Huthwaite, admitted theft and possession of a blade, at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on April 20.

On Friday, March 26, magistrates revoked the community order, and jailed him for 22 weeks. He was ordered to pay a government surcharge of £115.