Staffordshire man smoked in public building and confessed to carrying knife jailed

A man who entered a Stafford public building, started smoking and admitting to police officers that he had a knife in his bag has been jailed for more than five months.

Illya Priddy, 60, of no fixed address walked into a public building on Riverside and began smoking, when police officers told him to stop, he then proceeded to tell them he had a knife in his bag on Wednesday (October 14).

This claim was founded by Staffordshire Police as a lock-knife was found in Priddy’s bag and he was taken to custody.

Priddy was also wanted by officers for failing to surrender to court bail for a separate incident.

He admitted possession of a knife in a public place and failing to surrender to court bail at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre yesterday (Thursday, October 15).

He was also found guilty of the offence of threat to damage / destroy property at an earlier court hearing in relation to a separate incident.

Priddy has been jailed for more than five months.

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Chris Gifford, Problem Solving Sergeant at Staffordshire Police said: “Officers were able to act rapidly on the concerns of local people while they were carrying out high-visibility patrols in the town centre this week.

“This comes after the force was awarded £435,000 in additional funding to proactively tackle the main concerns of our communities, of which we know anti-social behaviour and knife crime ranks highly.

“It’s one of the many ways we are working to address key concerns directly across Staffordshire.”