A THIEF has been put behind bars after threatening a police officer with a hammer.

Christopher Doyle was told that he had a bad criminal record, which contributed to magistrates’ decision to lock him up.

The 39-year-old appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court to face three charges of theft from a shop, two of threatening a person with an offensive weapon in public and one of failing to provide a sample for a class A drug test.

The court heard from Lionel Cope, prosecuting on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, how the earliest offence occurred on May 7 this year.

The defendant entered a Co-op store in Warrington and walked out with food items worth £29 without paying.

Then on July 18, after being arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled drug and being in custody, he failed to provide a sample to ascertain whether he had a class A drug in his body.

The following day, Doyle stole meat worth £56.55 from a Tesco Express store in Warrington.

Then on July 26, he took an iPad without paying from WeeCharity, at Tanning Court in Howley, before threatening a police detective sergeant and another man with a hammer on nearby Parr Street.

He admitted that by doing so, a reasonable person exposed to the threat would think that there was an immediate risk of physical harm.

Magistrates remarked that the severity of the offences, paired with the defendant’s bad record, meant that they felt compelled to impose a custodial sentence and not suspend it.

Doyle, of Rolleston Street in Bewsey, was sentenced to 10 months immediate imprisonment.

He was also ordered to pay £85.55 in compensation for the goods he stole.