Jail for man who assaulted policeman with sandwiches

A Nottinghamshire man has been jailed for assaulting a policeman with sandwiches after he hurled them into the face of the officer. 20-year-old Thomas South left police community support officer James Wilkinson with a cut and bleeding lip after throwing his sandwiches in a carton as he fled through Mansfield town centre.

South was wanted by police for trying to spend £20 worth of counterfeit notes in the town. He successfully bought the sandwiches with his dud cash from Costa Coffee. But staff at another shop noticed one of his dodgy money and alerted police.



Officers moved in to arrest South but he fled, lobbing the sandwich as he ran in Officer Wilkinson’s direction on February 25. The type of sandwich filling was not mentioned as South was sentenced on Wednesday after admitting the attack and having the counterfeit cash.

Judge Andrew Hamilton jailed South for two months for the assault, consecutive to 12 months for the counterfeit cash charges, making his sentence 14 months, of which he will serve half and the remainder on licence. The judge told South: “there was no need for that whatsoever”, after he heard how he threw the sandwiches at the police community support officer.