A HOTEL resident has avoided being sent to prison immediately.

That is despite him being caught carrying a weapon in Warrington town centre in the form of a knife.

Sina Pour appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court to be sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of possessing a knife in a public place at an earlier hearing.

The court heard from Joseph Kindley, representing the prosecution in the case, how the incident occurred in Warrington on April 30 last year.

The defendant was seen in possession of a lock knife, ‘without good reason or lawful authority’, on Town Hill.

Taking everything into account, magistrates commented that the custodial threshold had been crossed the to the seriousness of the offence.

However, highlighting his guilty plea and a determination that the defendant is a ‘real prospect for rehabilitation’, they opted not to make the sentence immediate.

Pour, now of Etrop Grange Hotel, on Thorley Lane in Wythenshawe, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for 12 months.

He must also complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days, with an order approved for the forfeiture and destruction of the knife.

In addition, he was told he must pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £120 and a victim surcharge of £154, with an application made to deduct this from his benefits.