A THUG who is no stranger to the courts or custody is back behind bars for his latest criminal exploits.

Serial offender Shaun Scanlon has amassed an appalling criminal record over the past few years.

The 47-year-old has a history of committing violent offences and criminal damage, as well as ‘persistent anti-social behaviour’.

This has seen him be brought back before the courts again, when he was ordered to appeal before Chester Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, May 24.

Here, he faced charges of threatening behaviour and threatening to damage property, with magistrates stating that only immediate custody was appropriate.

Alan Currums, prosecuting, explained to the court how these latest offences were committed days prior on May 22 and 23.

Scanlon used threatening, disorderly or abusive words or behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.

He also threatened that he would smash the windows of The Hop Pole public house on Horsemarket Street in the town centre.

The Hop Pole in Warrington town centre

The Hop Pole in Warrington town centre

According to the charge he admitted, he ‘intended that staff would fear that the threat would be carried out’.

These offences come after Scanlon was locked up for 12 weeks in February for assaulting a shopkeeper by putting him in a headlock.

The defendant is not of previous good character, having previously been jailed for threatening to stab a friend while intoxicated and brandishing two kitchen knives.

He also has convictions for carrying knives in separate incidents and smashing a window at the Firkin Tap pub on Buttermarket Street.

For these latest offences, magistrates told Scanlon that they would take his guilty pleas to both charges into account before passing sentence.

However, they said that the offences demonstrated appropriate severity that only a custodial sentence could be justified.

This was due to his ‘persistent anti-social behaviour committed while in drink’, with the bench adding that he has made ‘little effort to address substance his misuse’.

Scanlon, of Lovely Lane in Whitecross, was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment.