A MAN who pulled a knife on door staff at a York city centre bar had gone off the rails after he started using cannabis, York Crown Court was told.

A judge said Adam Martin Metcalfe, who produced a lock knife when door staff at Bora Bora were dealing with an incident at the cafe and cocktail bar in Swinegate Court East, was a ‘living example of why cannabis use is illegal’.

Judge Andrew Stubbs, QC, said Metcalfe, 23, had achieved 11 GCSEs when he was young but was now working full-time in a takeaway and had mental health problems including paranoia.

“From a very promising start, you seem to have completely lost your way,” he said.

“You started taking cannabis. You are a living example of why cannabis use is illegal because of the appalling impact it has on people. Your life has gone off the rails.”

He spoke of the dangers created by producing a knife, as Metcalfe had done, which his friend had had to take off him.

The judge said a jail sentence was quite justifiable for such an offence but he had to decide whether it could be suspended in Metcalfe’s case.

He concluded there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation for Metcalfe, and jailed him for eight months - reduced from 12 months because of a guilty plea - but then suspended the sentence for 18 months.

He also ordered Metcalfe to do 100 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity, when he would receive mental health support.

Metcalfe, of Varvills Court, Micklegate, York, had admitted carrying a knife in public in Swinegate Court East.

Kate Bisset, prosecuting, said the incident happened at 2.30am on May 24 at Bora Bora, after an argument had broken out between a man and a woman and door staff intervened, before Metcalfe himself had intervened.

Metcalfe produced a lock knife and made a gesture with it behind their backs and a friend removed it from him, and they left the bar.

Customers subsequently alerted staff to what had happened and they played back CCTV footage which showed what he had done. Metcalfe had returned to the bar and he was detained by door staff.

Alexander Menary said in mitigation that Metcalfe recognised it had been a ‘stupid thing to do’. He said Metcalfe worked full time in a takeaway and did not have any particular trade or skills.

Concerns have been growing about the increasing use of knives in England and Wales. Latest recorded crime figures, released in April, showed 13-14 per cent increases in gun and knife crime in 2016.