A PROLIFIC shoplifter from Bolton brandished a hammer at supermarket staff who confronted him before running off with a 43 inch TV.

Barry Griffin terrorised staff at the Asda on Blackburn Road on March 4 after entering the store and picking up two bottles of spirits.

Bolton Crown Court heard he then went to the clothes section where he removed the security tags from items and picking up a packet of crisps, which he paid for.

But as he went to leave, he was confronted by staff and became violent.

Jennifer Devans-Tamakloe, prosecuting, told how Griffin hit one person in the face and then pulled out a hammer and made threats to the employees.

She said: “They stepped back while the defendant was brandishing a hammer.

“He picked up a 43-inch TV and went out.”

Griffin, aged 40, of Battenburg Road, Bolton, admitted assault, theft and possession of an offensive weapon.

The court he has 47 previous convictions, including many linked to his long term drug use which began in his teenage years with him using cannabis and later crack cocaine and heroin.

Nicholas Clarke, defending, asked for him to be given a chance to confront his drug addiction.

He said: “There is no record that he has ever entered a drug treatment requirement.

“He has spent the last 20 years, the whole of his adult life, in and out of jail.”

He added that deductions from his benefits due to court debts meant he was living on just £5 per day at the time of the offence.

Sentencing Griffin 18 months in prison, The Honorary Record of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh said: “I am quite satisfied only immediate custody is appropriate.

“If you continue to offend to feed your drug addiction you will return to a longer sentence of imprisonment.”