A man who jumped over a takeaway counter to grab a kitchen knife has been locked up for 20 months.

Giovanni Piras, 26, confronted a group of men after stealing the blade from behind the counter of Dixy Chicken during the incident in Accrington.

He was locked up for 20 months this week after a court heard he had breached a number of suspended sentences imposed for previous knife-related offences.

Burnley Crown Court heard that in three previous incidents, Piras was spared jail after ‘flourishing’ a lock knife in public, threatening a former girlfriend with a knife, and threatening police with a knife and a pan of hot water.

Recorder Kevin Talbot said there were ‘two sides’ to Piras, who grabbed a ‘very dangerous weapon indeed’ when he was ‘extremely drunk and out of control’.

He said: “Knives used as regularly as you have used them and in the circumstances in which you have used them, and made in a grossly drunken condition, mean these offences can’t be tolerated by the courts or by the public.”

The court heard that Piras had been ‘pestering’ people for cigarettes while in the smoking area of the Voodoo Lounge in the early hours of January 27.

He was later seen arguing with a group of men in the street before running across the road to Dixy Chicken  where he jumped the counter, grabbed a six-inch kitchen knife and ran back into the street.

He approached the men, waved the knife in front of him and lunged towards them screaming. When the group ran away Piras lunged at another man before running off. Soon after, the defendant waved down a police car telling officers he had been threatened by a group of men he saw stealing a handbag.

He was arrested and interviewed the following morning when he admitted that he had drunk about 25 beers and had ‘never been so drunk in his life’.

Piras, of Hollin Bank Court, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to burglary and threatening behaviour with a knife.

He also admitted breaching his curfew order while remanded on bail.

Fiona Wise, defending, asked for a suspended sentence for Piras, who is autistic, and ‘struggles not to take things literally’.