A man was caught out walking the streets with knives while already on a suspended sentence, a court has heard.

Damien Greenhalgh, 47, was stopped by police around the Harrowby Street and Harrowby Lane area of Farnworth on Sunday, February 11 this year.

Bolton Crown Court heard how he was one of three men officers, driving by in an unmarked police van, had seen and that on searching him they found two knives.

Prosecutor Peter Malone said: “One was a silver butter knife, and one was a kitchen knife with a pink handle.”

Mr Malone told the court how Greenhalgh, of Beechwood Street, Great Lever, was seen wearing a “large metal chain around his neck” which he discarded when the police approached.

The Bolton News: The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

At the time he was serving an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, which had been handed down by Bolton Crown Court last October for a burglary he had committed.

Greenhalgh had also been ordered to complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days and a 19-month drug rehabilitation requirement as part of his sentence.

Mr Malone said that Greenhalgh, who has 35 previous convictions for 65 offences, had shown “some compliance” with these conditions at first.

But he lost touch with the probation service in February this year.

Brought before the courts he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a bladed article in a public place and to breaching the terms of his suspended sentence order.

Richard Brigden, defending, said that Greenhalgh had earned credit for his guilty plea and pointed out that the knives were somewhat less threatening than many others.

He said: “Often those charged with this offence have with them some truly hideous weapons.

“These appear to be the type of weapons we might get out of a kitchen drawn, not the kinds of zombie knives we sometimes see.”

Mr Brigden accepted that Greenhalgh had an “appalling record” but told the court he was a “pretty damaged human being” who had struggled with drug addiction.

He said: “As is often the case with people who offend like this, it is simply to get the next score.”

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Judge Elliot Knopf accepted that Greenhalgh had shown “some compliance on your part” where his suspended sentence was concerned and that he had not used the knives involved.

He said: “I bear in mind that the weapons themselves were not produced but were found on you when you were searched."

But he reminded him that the crimes had been committed alongside the breaches to his suspended sentence.

Judge Knopf jailed Greenhalgh for a total of 19 months and ordered that the knives be seized and destroyed.