A SHOPPER has been jailed for making racist remarks towards staff when he was ordered out of a convenience store.

Rivo Michael Chambers, 18, had been messing about with an item on the shelves at Diamond Mini Market in Clarence Street, York magistrates heard.

He and his companion, Bradley Lynn, 19, threatened to break the store’s windows.

Lynn then stole a £6.99 bottle of vodka, said Jane Chadwick, prosecuting.

Chambers, of Constantine Avenue, Tang Hall, admitted a charge of racial abuse and was given a 21-day prison sentence.

He was already remanded in custody awaiting sentence before a crown court on more serious offences.

Lynn, 19, of Walmgate, York, pleaded guilty to a public order offence and theft and was given a nightly curfew from 7pm to 7am for ten weeks and ordered to pay a £60 statutory surcharge.

Mrs Chadwick said Chambers called the staff member “Paki”

and told him to “go back to your own country” on September 5.

One of the staff slapped the back of his head as he left, and Chambers continued to make racist remarks to both members of staff present.

Having left the store, he returned with Lynn.

They threatened both members of staff, kicked at the store windows and said they would break them.

Representing both defendants, Lauren Prentice said he had responded to the hit on the back of the head.

“It is wrong and he should not have reacted, but there were clear provocation there,” said the barrister.

“It was not a slight tap, it was a forceful hit.”

Lynn was a heroin addict and living a chaotic lifestyle at the time, sleeping rough in a tent.

Since then, he has found accommodation and the day before the court hearing had received a medical prescription to help him tackle his addiction.