A troublemaker who armed himself with a hammer later told police that he had it with him for his own protection – and not because he intended to threaten anyone with it if things turned nasty.
Crack cocaine addict Shane Agius failed to learn his lesson from that brush with the police and he was found a few months later with a potentially lethal knife in his pocket during another tense street confrontation, Hull Crown Court heard.
Agius, 43, of Hull, admitted possessing a hammer as an offensive weapon in public on April 22, possessing a knife in public and possessing heroin and cannabis on July 30.
Amber Hobson, prosecuting, said that two members of the public reported to police that they had seen a man with a hammer in the street. Officers found Agius and stopped him. He was searched.
"He produced the hammer from his jacket pocket and threw it to the ground," said Miss Hobson. Agius claimed that he had the hammer for his own protection and not to threaten anyone. He was on a car park near a grassed area not far from Bransholme medical centre at the time, although not in the immediate area of the medical centre.
During police interview, he made no comment to all questions and he was released under investigation. The second incident happened when police saw two men squaring up to each other at the corner of Spring Bank and Collingwood Street, Hull.
Agius was detained. A hammer was on the road near where the men had come together. Agius was searched and he told police that he had a knife in his pocket. It was a three-inch-bladed lock knife.
Police also found 11 wraps of heroin and two plastic bags containing cannabis. "The defendant was taken to hospital after his arrest because he reported drowsiness," said Miss Hobson.
Police found 14 more wraps of heroin in the rear of the police van. These had not previously been found despite two earlier searches of him. Agius claimed that he bought the knife to open cartons and that he thought that it was legal.
He claimed that, 30 minutes before he was arrested, he saw two men fighting in the street and one of them dropped something. He picked it up and did not know what it was but assumed that it was drugs.
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Agius had convictions for 91 previous offences, most of them for theft, but including eight for drugs between 1998 and 2016 and another for possessing a blade in 2000, when he was jailed for 18 months.
He was jailed for 18 months in 2012 for violent disorder and he was jailed for one year in 2022 for assault causing actual bodily harm. His most recent conviction was being jailed for 10 weeks in June for threatening behaviour. He had a conviction in 2010 for assaulting police.
Hannah Turner, mitigating, said that Agius was a long-term drug addict, mainly involving crack cocaine. "That is what this defendant has been plagued with," said Miss Turner.
"He has been essentially homeless for the last two years. He attributes a lot of his offending behaviour to his homelessness."
Police were already at Bransholme medical centre dealing with a separate incident when a member of the public told them that Agius was in the general area of Dalwood Close and Axminster Close, Bransholme.
Agius, who has a daughter, had recently been suffering the side effects of remaining drug-free while in custody on remand. His goal was to become a mentor to help those who were in the position that he had been in for 20 years. "He tells me that he is just getting too old for this lifestyle," said Miss Turner.
Judge Richard Woolfall said: "It's not a defence to arm yourself with a weapon by way of self-defence. What inevitably happens is that other people arm themselves with weapons for self-defence and matters escalate."
Agius, who has had previous addresses in Great Thornton Street, Hull, and Biggin Avenue, Bransholme, was jailed for 17 months.
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