Men pulled out 'lethal' axe and machete in Hartlepool town centre shop

Mohammed Mohammad and an associate, who is wanted by police, had the lethal weapons inside Hadj’s Mini Market, in York Road, Hartlepool.

A judge said the situation “immediately descended into public disorder" around midnight when two unknown men entered the store and tried to attack Mohammad and his friend.

The incident was captured on the store’s CCTV and was played during a sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court on September 3 for Mohammad who had the machete.

Elisha Marsay, prosecuting, said: “The defendant’s associate can be seen to take an axe from his person and hold it behind his back.

"The defendant can be seen holding a machete down his right leg which is subsequently taken from its sheath.”

The unidentified aggressors were ushered out by the store employee and a short time later Mohammad and the other male also left.

It is not known what was behind the incident and 22-year-old Mohammad, of Helmsley Street, Hartlepool, claimed not to know the men who tried to attack them.

He was arrested a number of weeks later when police carried out a drugs warrant at an address in Hartlepool where Mohammad was present.

He ran out of a back door and was found hiding in a shed he had broken into in Sandringham Road causing around £200 of damage.

Mohammad, an Iraqi national who the court heard has been in the UK around five years, pleaded guilty to possession of a blade in public on April 22 and criminal damage on June 14.

In mitigation, Antonia Adie said the machete did not belong to Mohammad and it was not used to cause any harm.

"He took it out of its sheath for only a few seconds,” she added.

But Judge Jonathan Carroll said of the weapons: “A machete is a lethal weapon. The fact is they were made available for immediate use and they were capable of causing serious injury or death.”

Mohammad was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

A warrant is out for the man who had the axe after he failed to turn up at a previous court appearance.