Lorry driver dropped knife during drunken dance

A man who dropped a knife while dancing drunkenly out of a bar in Nottinghamshire has been sentenced.

Mihai Cazacu, 38, was leaving The Duck in Castle Gate, Newark, at about 20:30 BST on 15 August after drinking beer and vodka, police said.

As he danced towards the exit, CCTV inside the bar filmed a knife falling from his back pocket which was retrieved by a member of staff.

Door staff detained Cazacu, of no fixed abode, as he tried to leave before police arrived. At Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 17 August, he was fined and handed a suspended jail term.

After pleading guilty to possession of a kitchen knife in a public place, Cazacu was given a two-month jail term suspended for two years, and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £154 victim surcharge.

Truck driver Cazacu told Nottinghamshire Police in an interview he had been drinking in his lorry cab before walking to the bar, but said he did not remember having a knife on him.

He suggested he may have taken the knife from the bar, but the one that was seized did not match the bar's cutlery.

PC Chloe Baldry thanked The Duck for their action and said: "There is never any justification for carrying a weapon.

"Thankfully, nobody was hurt during this incident, and a dangerous weapon has now been removed from the street."

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