A MAN suffering from a mental health illness smashed shelves and grabbed a customer in a headlock in a shop in south Shropshire, a court heard.
Adam Moorcroft was said to have been "jumping around" the Tuffins shop in Cleobury Mortimer with his fists clenched.
The 30-year-old defendant, already banned from several other shops in the area because of his criminal behaviour, later told police he had wanted to be arrested and did not want to live in the town.
Magistrates in Telford gave Moorcroft a 12-month community order with 40 hours of unpaid work and a 40-day rehabilitation requirement. He was ordered to pay costs of £85 and £4.38 compensation for damaged Creme Eggs.
Moorcroft, of Childe Road, Cleobury Mortimer, had admitted charges of criminal damage, common assault, and breaching a criminal behaviour order.
Mike Phillips, prosecuting, said Moorcroft had briefly entered the Tuffins shop in the High Street on April 8 and then left, but returned and shouted “Everybody get on the floor.”
The defendant began to jump around the store with his fists clenched and smashed a display of Cadbury Creme Eggs and shelves of snacks.
He then grabbed a customer in a headlock before releasing him and running out of the shop.
Moorcroft had told police he did not like living in Cleobury Mortimer and wanted to return to Telford where he had been living a few months earlier.
Dean Easthope, for Moorcroft, said his client, who had been known to mental health workers for the past 12 years, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had been in custody since his arrest.
“He went to the shop with the view to get arrested. He didn’t really have a plan of what he was going to do,” he said.
Mr Easthope said Moorcroft had got “carried away” during his outburst and had grabbed a passer-by in a headlock, but had immediately let go when the victim shouted.
He said Moorcroft had lived with a friend in Telford but, following a false report about a firearm, his friend said Moorcroft could no longer live there.