A PERSISTENT alcohol thief who threatened supermarket security guards with syringes and a kitchen knife has been locked up for six months.

Damien Hawkins, 41, was on licence after serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for a series of house break-ins when he raided bottles of spirits from Sainsbury’s in Harrogate Road, Bradford, three times in two days.

On his third visit, at 3.45pm on January 20, when parents with children were in the store, Hawkins was confronted by two security guards and produced a bag of syringes, prosecutor Stephanie Hancock told Bradford Crown Court.

He used them to try to ward off the guards while he was being restrained but dropped them.

Hawkins next produced a small kitchen knife and raised it at the guards in a threatening way but that too fell to the ground, Miss Hancock said.

The court heard that Hawkins had successfully made off with stolen alcohol earlier the same day and on the previous morning.

On January 19, he and an accomplice got away with £152 of spirits by using a specially modified shopping bag to cheat the store security system.

Next morning he was back to raid Grey Goose vodka and Jack Daniels whiskey valued at £108. He was chased by security staff but got away.

Miss Hancock said the store was busy when Hawkins returned that afternoon to take more alcohol but was this time apprehended.

The court heard he was a “second strike” offender for being caught with an offensive weapon, having a previous conviction in 1990.

Miss Hancock said the repeat offence triggered a six month prison term.

Hawkins, who was sentenced on a video link to Holme House prison, pleaded guilty to two offences of possession of an offensive weapon and three charges of shoplifting.

He also admitted breach of his bail when he failed to turn up at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court and a warrant was executed for his arrest.

In mitigation, Hawkins’ solicitor advocate, John Bottomley, said his client was released from the house burglary sentence in September last year and was on prison licence until January 2018.

He fell off the wagon after freeing himself from illegal drugs and living a crime free life in a hostel.

Hawkins resorted to stealing from Sainsbury’s instead of breaking into people’s homes.

“This is a purposeful climbdown in his offending,” Mr Bottomley said.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, told Hawkins: “You have thrown enough of your life away already in prison.”

The judge said he expected the long-term drug user and prolific offender to look like “a wreck of a man” when he saw him on the video link.

But he said Hawkins looked bright and alert and appeared to be following the proceedings intelligently.

The judge urged him to change his ways when he was freed from prison in about three months’ time.