Man found asleep with knife in taxi is jailed

A man who was woken up by police after falling asleep in the back of a taxi with a knife has been jailed.

Lewis Thompson was in a vehicle that travelled from North Sherwood Street to Roswell Drive, Stapleford, on 13 October.

Thompson, who was also wanted for an assault at a pub in Nottingham in June, became abusive after officers were called to the scene when the driver spotted the knife.

The 27-year-old, of no fixed abode, admitted a string of offences and was sentenced to 33 months in jail at Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

Thompson admitted to offences in relation to crimes in May and June, in addition to the incident in October.

This included assault occasioning actual bodily harm, using threatening words or behaviour, being drunk and disorderly, possession of cannabis, possession of a bladed article in a public place, assaulting an emergency worker, and obstructing a police officer.

The court heard Thompson got involved in an argument outside a pub in Beeston in May.

Ellesse Taylor, prosecuting, said Thompson appeared in court after threatening to stab the individual he was in an argument with and his mother.

She added he resisted attempts to get him into a police van during the incident.

On 29 June Ms Taylor said Thompson got into a fight with a man at a pub in Nottingham city centre.

The court heard the victim lost two teeth and had a swollen lip.

On 13 October Thompson got into the taxi, after which Ms Taylor said he "had fallen asleep and remained asleep even [after] arriving at his destination".

When the driver saw the knife on a seat and partially under his leg she called the police, and Ms Taylor said the defendant "immediately became aggressive" and verbally abusive, before disclosing he had "a container with a large amount of cannabis" in a bag.

Mitigating, Lauren Fisher said Thompson was "very much struggling to come to terms with the death of his father" in November 2018, and admitted using "extremely excessive consumption of alcohol, and on occasions drugs" to cope.

The court heard he had 20 previous convictions for 35 offences, and had been handed a suspended sentence in January, which was activated at Tuesday's sentencing.

Judge Helen Malcolm KC said a custodial sentence was "inevitable", adding the June pub attack was "unprovoked" and "sustained".

"You are now 27, and this is not the first time that you have been before the court for sentence for a substantial number of different offences," she said.

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