A shoplifter threatened store staff with a knife when they caught him stealing their goods, a court heard.

Jamie Ross, 21, held out a four-inch blade in front of him when a store manager tried to stop him leaving Safeways in Acomb, said Steven Ovenden, prosecuting.

"I don't think you want to do that," Ross told staff. "I don't think you want to stop me".

Mr Ovenden added that when an employee did attempt to detain him, Ross said: "You will get some of this."

The thief then left the store with two bottles of Tia Maria and a bottle of Bailey's liqueur he had not paid for.

The 21-year-old from Tudor Road, Acomb, later went on the run from York Magistrates Court.

When he was arrested on warrant ten months later, he pleaded guilty to theft of alcohol worth £30.98 and carrying a knife in public.

He also admitted breaching a community service order imposed seven months before the knife incident for theft and going equipped for theft.

He was given a combination order including one year's probation and 100 hours' community service.

Mr Ovenden said the store manager at Safeways in Front Street approached Ross after seeing him take the bottles from the display and put them under his jacket.

The bottles were later found in a hedge, but the knife has never been found.

For Ross, John Howard said he was arrested within five minutes of leaving the store.

All his offences had been committed when he was on heroin.

But since failing to appear at York Magistrates Court for the knife incident in January he had kicked his habit by himself without help from drug agencies.

He had also got himself a girlfriend and was doing his best to get himself a job.