A teenager has been jailed after being caught with a knife in Huddersfield town centre.
Worried CCTV operatives monitoring the town called police after spotting Luke Hirst with a group of other males on King Street late on June 20.
They believed that the 18-year-old was the same youth they had spotted days earlier carrying a knife.
Jailing him for 12 weeks, District Judge Michael Fanning told the teenager: “Youths and knives do not mix and most of the victims of knife crime are young men.
“Courts cannot tolerate this and have to send a clear message that people who carry knives must go to prison.”
Hirst, of no fixed address, had at an earlier hearing pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a bladed article in public and two charges of obstructing a police constable acting in the execution of his duty.
He also admitted stealing a Royal British Legion charity box and its contents from a hotel reception.
Kirklees Magistrates’ Court heard that the knife offence occurred at 8.30pm in Huddersfield town centre.
Police stopped Hirst and when they told him that he was about to be searched he confessed that he had a Stanley knife in his pocket.
Prosecutor Bill Astin said: “He said he used this for work but wouldn’t give the name of his employer.”
The court also heard how the teenager took the charity box which contained £75 in cash from a hotel in Doncaster on November 10.
The local youth offending team had arranged for him to spend the night at the hotel but he was caught on CCTV taking the charity box from the reception area at just after 1am.
The court was told that Hurst suffered from severe ADHD and had been made homeless after losing his accommodation.
He claimed he’d used the knife to pack boxes but admitted that it shouldn’t have been in his possession.
Hirst was ordered to pay £115 upon his release from prison.
