A shoplifter who assaulted a female store assistant who tried to stop him leaving the shop has been sent to crown court due to the severity of his offending.

Blackburn magistrates heard when the store manager intervened Sean Clarke spat in his face.

Clarke, 32, of Stonyhurst Road, Blackburn, admitted to theft of alcohol worth £33 from Lidl and two charges of assault.

He also pleaded guilty to theft of alcohol from Marks & Spencer and breach of a criminal behaviour order by entering that store.

He was committed in custody to Preston Crown Court to be sentenced on November 23 after magistrates ruled their powers of punishment were insufficient.

Suzanne Byrne, prosecuting, said the offences at Lidl occurred when Clarke entered the store put some items in a bag and left without paying.

A female assistant challenged him and tried to take the bag off him and Clarke grabbed her by the arm as he tried to wrestle the bag off her.

“The store manager came over to assist his colleague and at that point the defendant spat in his face and was abusive to both of them before walking away,” said Miss Byrne.

Two days later Clarke went into M&S and stole a bottle of whisky. This time he was stopped and detained.

Miss Byrnes said the criminal behaviour order was made in December and this was the third breach.

The first was in March when he was jailed for four weeks and the second in August when he was jailed for six weeks.

Clarke was released from custody seven days before the offences at Lidl.

Jonathan Taylor, mitigating, said Clarke had been before the courts in 2016 for possession of cocaine.

“It is that particular drug which has led to his significant downfall since that time,” said Mr Taylor.

“He does his best to deal with the issues but it isn’t easy.”

Mr Taylor said the prison service wasn’t able to do a great deal with people serving a sentence.

He said spice was readily available in prison because that drug was difficult for the sniffer dogs to detect.

“When he was released last week he went to the allocated accommodation but they weren’t able to process him,” said Mr Taylor. 

"He was sent away and ended up gravitating back to drug dealers and drug users because there is nobody else.

"He quickly found him in the situation where he had to ‘work’ to pay his drug debt.”

Mr Taylor said his client didn’t want to be involved in his current lifestyle.

“It is taking its toll on his body and he knows that,” said Mr Taylor. “He knows the assaults were despicable and he is deeply ashamed of them.”