A man who took an axe into a Walsall bar has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Francis Mongan, aged 35, of Alderley Crescent, Leamore, was convicted of one charge of having an offensive weapon during a hearing at the town’s magistrates court last month.

He was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

The court was told he had got into an argument with someone in a pub on Bridge Street on October 22 and had gone outside to collect an axe from a white Ford Transit van.

The licensee alerted police and Mongan left, putting the axe back into his van.

But his registration number was noted and he was later tracked down by officers. He told them the dispute was about a bracelet and he had got the weapon to scare the man but did not raise it or use it in any way.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, Judge Michael Challinor sentenced him to nine months in jail, suspended for 18 months, as well as 150 hours of community work. He was also ordered to pay costs of £340.