Man jailed for fashioning a gun out of brown paper bag and threatening police officers in Telford
A man who attempted to car jack police officers with a gun that he had fashioned out of a brown paper bag after he failed to break into Telford town centre shop has been jailed for 19 months.
Matthew Sylvester, of no fixed abode, was having some sort of “delusion” on Saturday, February 22 this year when he tried to batter down the door to the store as managers were cashing up, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Friday.
Prosecuting, Mr Danny Smith, told the court that the 37-year-old was banging on the glass doors after the shop was closed and was demanding to be let in.
“He stated he had a gun,” said Mr Smith, “And demanded the door was opened or he was going to shoot.”
But he added: “It is fair to say, they (the store workers) never actually believed he had a gun so they took out a phone out and started recording him.”
He said Sylvester then used shopping trolleys to try to batter his way inside the shop, and when that failed, “lowered his trousers and showed his penis and buttocks”.
Police were called and two officers arrived on the scene.
