Kettering Aldi employee's panic as he feared tequila thief could stab him

A Kettering Aldi employee feared he could be stabbed by a thief who threatened him with a screw.

The victim was working at the Stanier Retail Park supermarket, off Northfield Avenue, when Benjamin Smith entered the store and helped himself to tequila.

But as heroin addict Smith left he made eye contact with the victim, pointed the screw at him as he walked his way and told him to stay back.

On Monday (April 22) he was jailed for 16 months after admitting possessing a bladed article in public, threatening a person with an offensive weapon and theft.

Northampton Crown Court heard the victim was working near a checkout at about midday on January 28 when he noticed two men enter the store, recognising one as a thief.

He watched 34-year-old Smith, of no fixed address, walk into aisle three before picking up four bottles of tequila and conceal them in his jacket.

Prosecutor Sinjin Bulbring said Smith then walked towards the victim as he exited, making eye contact and pointing something sharp at him, which was later discovered to be a screw.

Smith, who appeared at court over videolink from HMP Peterborough, was heard to say: “Do not come near me, stay back.”

Mr Bulbring said: “The victim feared the defendant could stab him.

"The defendant continued to warn the victim not to come near him as he exited the store.”

Smith set off the alarm and was later found in Alexandra Street with the tequila, worth just over £50, as well as screws and a Stanley blade in a bag.

In an impact statement read out by Mr Bulbring the victim said he felt panicked, that the incident has exacerbated his anxiety and that it was only once the adrenaline had worn off that he realised how dangerous a position he was in.

Her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking KC said: “It was clearly a very distressing experience for him.”

The court heard Smith has convictions for 37 previous offences including burglary and theft. His advocate Dan Green, mitigating, urged the case for a suspended prison sentence.

Mr Green said Smith has had problems with heroin addiction and that he also uses crack cocaine, adding that the items in his possession were for cleaning out a crack pipe and that he still had the screw in his hand.

He asked Judge Lucking KC to consider exceptional circumstances and said being sentenced to a drug rehabilitation requirement would be better for him than being released from prison with less support and struggling to ‘resist the temptation’.

But Judge Lucking KC said Smith has a long track record of not complying with community orders and that she didn’t see any exceptional circumstances which would allow her to suspend the sentence.

She said: “When you threaten a member of store staff with a weapon…appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.”

Smith – who has been remanded in prison since the incident – will serve up to half of his sentence in custody before being released on licence.