A shoplifter has been spared an immediate prison sentence for threatening a security guard with a Stanley knife when he was caught stealing meat from Morrisons.

Robert Collinson, 36, of Otley Road, Undercliffe, Bradford, committed the offence at the supermarket in Idle, on February 19.

He pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and theft of £90 of meat.

Bradford Crown Court was told yesterday that Morrisons now security tags all its meat products.

Collinson’s solicitor Ashok Khullar said he did well at school and was a qualified plumber but “destroyed his life with addiction to alcohol and drugs”.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC sentenced Collinson to 15 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, with supervision.