Diner threatened to use knife on pub staff over 'below par' beef and onion sandwich

A diner threatened to return to a pub armed with a knife because he felt aggrieved about a “below par” beef and onion sandwich, a court heard. The “trivial grievance” got out of hand after Clive Davies, who has a previous conviction for manslaughter, left the pub in which he’d had the sandwich and started showing people the weapon he would use on those who’d served him the unsatisfactory baguette.

Cambridge Crown Court heard Davies, of Lovell Road, King’s Hedges, Cambridge, delivered an angry tirade in the One Stop Shop in Milton’s High Street after feeling he had been served unsatisfactory food at the White Horse pub, also in the High Street, on May 16. During the outburst, the 54-year-old showed shop staff a seven-inch blade, which he said he was going to use against the owners of the nearby pub.



After leaving the shop an employee called the police and an armed search of the area began. Davies was later found, and arrested, across the road in the Lion and Lamb pub. Nobody was injured. David Ewing, mitigating, said his client had gone to the shop “mumbling under his breath about how he was angry at the landlord at the pub after being served a below par sandwich.”

Davies pleaded guilty to threatening and abusive language, possessing a bladed article in a public place, and possession of cannabis – which was found when he was arrested. For the knife offence, Davies was handed a 12-month community order with supervision and alcohol treatment requirements, as well as a curfew for four months. He was given a concurrent 28 day curfew for cannabis possession.