A PROLIFIC offender has escaped immediate jail time for threatening to ‘smash’ a bus driver’s head and for stealing nearly £2,000 worth of clothing items.  

David Gillam, 39, was previously convicted of two counts of using threatening, abusive, insulting words  in his absence at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court on April 16.

The court heard on that occasion how Gillam became aggressive to a male bus driver who had asked him to leave his number six Stagecoach bus heading towards Barrow on October 29 last year.

It comes after his behaviour caused two young females on board to feel ‘uncomfortable’.

Giving evidence to the court, the bus driver said: “There was a young girl who asked the man if he wouldn’t mind sitting somewhere else as his behaviour was unsettling her.

“I noticed he was acting a little strange after he paid for his ticket. He turned to a young girl with a small child in a pram. He then sat down and proceeded to start lifting and stretching his legs out across a seat.”

Prosecutor Martin Turner said Gillam replied: ‘Hey baldy, I am going to smash your head in’ after the bus driver had called the police because the defendant had refused to depart from the bus.

READ MORE HERE: Barrow man told bus driver: ‘I am going to smash your head in’

The bus driver said he felt ‘shocked’ and that he feared something could have happened if an officer had not been there.

“He seemed to be aggressive as if he would have assaulted me,” the bus driver told the court.

“I can understand why his behaviour would have been concerning.”

The court heard Gillam shouted abusive language towards PCSO Michelle Jones upon her arrival at the scene.

He was eventually arrested after a struggle with PC Mia Fairclough for urinating on a wall over flowers.

Gillam, of St Quintin Street in Barrow, admitted he had obstructed the officer in the execution of her duty at an earlier hearing.

The defendant was also sentenced after being convicted of stealing eight jackets from Gaynor Sports in Ambleside to the value of £1,927 on three separate occasions in December last year.

Magistrates at South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court imposed a 20-week suspended sentence for two years with requirements to complete ten rehabilitation days and six months of the Recovery Steps programme.

Gillam was also ordered to pay £400 in compensation.

No order for costs were made.