THE courts said ‘its hands are tied’ when jailing a mum caught possessing a knife for the third time.

Charlotte Tatlock has been sent to prison for having the blade on her person in a public place.

Having committed the offence before, she also has previous for verbally abusing public servants and having pepper spray in her make-up bag.

The 31-year-old was sentenced at Chester Magistrates’ Court on charges of possessing a knife in a public place and possessing a controlled class C drug.

Details of the offending were relayed to the court by Valeriya Tonkinson, representing the prosecution, who said that both offences were committed on June 1.

Tatlock was found to be in possession of a knife on Horsemarket Street in Warrington town centre, and a quantity of pregabalin in Runcorn.

The court heard of her previous convictions, which include a seven-month jail term in December 2021 for the ‘deliberate’ verbal abuse of two public servants.

This breached a suspended sentence imposed the previous year for possessing a large kitchen knife with a 15-inch blade on Greenwood Crescent in Orford.

Tatlock was also handed a community order in January 2019 after she was caught with pepper spray in her makeup bag during a police raid.

For her latest offending, district judge John McGarva said he would give her credit for her guilty pleas, but remarked that the court’s hands were tied in so far as it was dutybound to impose an immediate jail term.

This was due to this being the defendant’s third knife offence, the nature and seriousness of the offence, her previous convictions and credit being given by not committing the case to the crown court.

Tatlock, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to 26 weeks immediate imprisonment.

Order approved to deprive the defendant of the knife seized on her arrest and destroy the pregabalin she had in her possession.