A MAN who had a knife with him in the street after arguing with another man over £20 has been jailed.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said police heard Mark Scott say about the other man: “He doesn’t realise he has a debt to me. He has got a big problem.”

He told officers that although he had a knife, he had no intention of using it on the other man. When officers asked, he took a steak knife out of an inside pocket of his jacket.

He claimed he was carrying it to protect himself, the court was told.

It was the third time Scott had been caught carrying a weapon in public, York magistrates heard.

The probation service told the court: “We are struggling to manage him in the community.”

A probation officer told the court Scott had not co-operated with efforts by the probation service to help him or repeated offers of help to get accommodation.

He had had repeated housing offers but had been so abusive to staff he had been barred from the housing service. Mental health services had also banned him from their offices for a similar reason, the court heard.

He had deliberately injured himself in public in Shambles Market and Coney Street and when emergency services answered 999 calls, he had refused their help.

For Scott, Kevin Blount said he was drinking too much and had mental health problems.

“This man doesn’t habitually carry a knife,” said Mr Blount.

“There is no suggestion he produced the knife, no suggestion he had intended to harm the gentleman of the debt.”

The other knife offences had been many years ago and he had not broken the law since 2014 until this year.

Scott, 47, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to carrying a knife in public in Lowther Street in The Groves.

Because it was his third conviction for such an offence, he faced a mandatory sentence of at least six months minus a discount for pleading guilty.

He was on a conditional discharge and a community order at the time of the offence.

He was jailed for 20 weeks for carrying the knife plus 12 weeks for assaulting an emergency worker, an offence for which the community order had been imposed.

He was also ordered to pay a £187 statutory surcharge.

Mr Butterworth said Scott had called police on November 23. Officers found him sitting on some church steps in Lowther Street in The Groves. He said he had been threatened by a man, whom he named, over £20, but didn’t want to make a formal complaint about him. He had then gone to buy the steak knife, the court heard.