Drug addict former Ashfield soldier dropped a machete when he fell of his bike in Sutton while intoxicated

Carl Airey appeared before Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday, January 28, after admitting carrying an offensive weapon, a spate of shop thefts and breaching a restraining order.

Many of the offences took place after Airey, 50, of Jubilee Road, Sutton, had been given a suspended sentence in November 2019 for similar matters.

Prosecuting, Stuart Lody told the court: “A delivery man was on Outram Street, Sutton, when he heard a heavy thud and saw that the defendant was very drunk and had fallen off his bike. He had also dropped a machete.

“A member of the public told him off for carrying that item and reported it to the police.”

He said that Airey had motioned towards some houses opposite, and said he was carrying the weapon for protection because they were involved in selling drugs.

After being given the suspended sentence, Airey went on to steal from Aldi, Home Bargains, and Wilko, which he was also banned from entering by the courts.

Mitigating, Benn Robinson said: “He’s someone who’s had a very long struggle with illicit substances which seem to have started when he left the Armed Forces, having seen some very distressing things in Bosnia.”

Judge Steven Coupland extended Airey’s current suspended sentence, rather than sending him to prison because of the efforts he had made to get on top of his drugs use in recent months, and because he had spent much of 2020 remanded in custody.

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