Drunk Metro passenger told staff 'I'll smash all your faces up'
Keith Banks had downed up to eight pints of lager, on top of prescription medication for a chest complaint, before he started shouting at workers in Monument metro station in Newcastle.During the late night rant on December 20 last year, the 31-year-old said the staff were "grasses" and smashed a cleaner's dustpan and brush, which was worth £15.Prosecutor Jolyon Perks told Newcastle Crown Court: "In order to diffuse the situation, a member of staff said if he went to the train platform he may be able to catch a train."His response to that, however, was 'if there is no trains down there, I will come back up and smash all your faces up'."The court heard staff believed Banks posed a "real threat" to their safety, in particular a cleaner he asked to fight "one on one", and the police were called to the station.Banks, of Coast Road, Heaton, Newcastle, who was on a suspended sentence at the time, admitted threatening behaviour and criminal damage.Judge Tim Gittins sentenced him to three months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, with a three month night time curfew.The judge said the jail term could be suspended because Banks has started on a construction course to secure work and had a positive report from theprobation service.Judge Gittins said Banks had been particularly threatening to the cleaner and added: "You are a big man and no doubt you were thoroughly intimidating to thatman, who as doing no more than his job and deserves to be treated better."The court heard Banks had been immediately apologetic when he sobered up and had a poor recollection of what happened.He told police he had had "seven or eight pints of lager" and that his intoxication had been made worse by the fact he was on antibiotics.The judge told him: "I take the view I can give you this final chance."John Wilkinson, defending, said Banks is determined to stay away from any further trouble.