A MAN who abused customers outside a Malvern shop and threatened to bite off a policeman’s nose has been jailed for 21 months.

Adam Vials stole a bottle of wine from the Co-op in Barnards Green while drunk but later returned and became offensive towards shoppers, Worcester Crown Court was told.

When police came on the scene, he told them they would have to lock him up before saying he would “nut” one officer and bite him, said Alexander Barnfield, prosecuting. A fortnight earlier Vials had broken into TP Travel Services in Malvern and stole computer towers and a toaster to a total value of £300. Vials, aged 39, of Priory Road, Malvern, pleaded guilty to threatening behaviour, shoplifting and burglary. He committed the crimes while under a 12-month suspended prison sentence for house burglary.

Judge John Cavell said Vials, who had a record for nine offences of dishonesty, had not responded to community penalties in the past so custody was the only option.

Vials went to the shop on September 21. After stealing the wine worth £4.49 he taunted a shop assistant who ran outside after him, telling him: “I’m far enough away so you can’t do anything.” Later that evening, the same shop worker saw him with another man near the shop berating customers. He got into the travel agent’s on September 6 after breaking a window. The toaster was dumped in a garden.

Tom Walkling, defending, said an alcohol problem was the driving factor behind Vials’s offending. He had begun an alcohol rehabilitation course but it only lasted three sessions because no one was available to continue running it.