A SHOP supervisor was left terrified after a middle-aged man offered her £10 for sex. Burnley magistrates court heard how drunken takeaway worker Mehrzad Abdollahian, 43, who grabbed the Next worker's arm over the till, spoke to her in broken English and a foreign language.

Elliot Taylforth, prosecuting, told the court the victim feared it was only a matter of time before the defendant became violent. She was extremely frightened and upset.

Abdollahian was fined £150 by District Judge James Prowse, who said he had committed previous alcohol-related offences and slammed his conduct as "absolutely inexcusable".

The judge warned him to do something about his drink intake before it got him into more trouble.

He went on: "People when they have had too much to drink say and do things that when they are sober they wouldn't. That doesn't excuse what you did."

The judge said the woman must have found it extremely frightening and distasteful when the defendant made sexual suggestions at her place of work.

Abdollahian, of Gordon Street, Burnley, admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour last November 12. The defendant, who had at first denied the charge, was ordered to pay £25 costs.

Mr Taylforth said the woman had been told to be "on her guard" about the defendant when he entered the shop and went into the men's department at 3.45pm.

He started shouting, asking the woman to have sex with him for £10. The supervisor asked him to leave, the manager came down and the defendant left.

Lee Hammond, defending, said Abdollahian could not remember exactly what words were said. He had had no intention of becoming violent.