A NEWLY-released prisoner threatened to stab a bus passenger in the neck unless he made a phone call about coronavirus, York magistrates heard.

Craig Dale Laing claimed the call had to be made because of “a national emergency relating to coronavirus”, said Kathryn Reeve, prosecuting.

The 42-year-old hustled the victim on two buses in Clarence Street the day after he had left prison part way through a seven-year sentence for major drug dealing.

Laing approached the victim as he was waiting for a bus and told him to make the call, saying: “If you don’t do this, I am going to stab you in the neck.”

When the victim got onto a bus to try and escape from him, Laing followed.

The victim, spotting two York St John University security staff nearby outside the bus, got off and then onto a second bus, but Laing followed.

“He (Laing) was getting in his face, tugging at his clothes and refusing to leave the bus,” said Ms Reeve.

Laing was jailed in 2016 at York Crown Court for running a heroin and cocaine convenience store with others at their flat in The Groves.

The court heard then that so many addicts used it they sometimes formed queues to be served.

Police estimated the dealers collected £500,000 in drug deals on the orders of a major York-based drugs gang that was jailed in 2017 and 2018 for a total of more than 50 years.

Laing, formerly of Lowther Street, The Groves, pleaded guilty at York Magistrates’ Court to threatening words and behaviour towards the bus passenger and assaulting an emergency worker by spitting in the face of a custody sergeant.

He was jailed for 18 weeks. The Parole Board has already recalled him to prison to serve the rest of his seven-year sentence.

His solicitor Keith Whitehouse said Laing won’t be free again until August 2023.

Laing could remember very little of the incident as he had been drinking rum earlier in the day.

He had been so displeased with the way police arrested him in Clarence Street, he spat at the custody sergeant when she asked him for some information.

Laing had mental health problems which had not been treated as he had wanted in prison.

On his release, he had used rum to deal with them.