A man has been jailed for more than six months after being caught with a lock knife outside a Huddersfield supermarket.

Marcus Alexander, of Clare Hill, was jailed under new powers to deal with ‘two strikes’ offenders.

The 38-year-old held another conviction for possessing a bladed article in public from 2010.

Kirklees magistrates heard that on April 9 Alexander was stopped by a police community support officer outside Sainsbury’s in Market Street.

He was pointed out by the store’s security guard as being responsible for the theft of a bottle of port from the store three days earlier.

He was searched and the knife was found inside one of his pockets.

Alexander admitted to the offence as well as two thefts from Farmfoods in the town on March 1 and 5.

Carl Kingsley, mitigating, explained that his client committed the offences to support his heroin addiction.

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He told magistrates that Alexander had been evicted after being unable to pay his rent due to his benefits being sanctioned.

Mr Kingsley said: “The only people he could go to were the people he’d known for years and they are all drug addicts.

“Very quickly he was back into drugs and committing offences again.”

Mr Kingsley told that court that his client’s previous conviction for possessing a bladed article created a problem under a new section of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act, which came into force last July.

This created a minimum custodial sentence for those aged 16 and over convicted of a second offence of possession of a knife or offensive weapon.

Magistrates jailed Alexander for 26 weeks.

The lock knife will be forfeited and destroyed.