A man who was on a two-day alcohol binge when he produced a knife after being refused a drink at a Deeside pub has been jailed for two years.

Ben Randles, 24, told the barmaid who was working alone: “Give me a pint or I will stab you.”

He repeated the threat and stepped forward and the terrified barmaid ran upstairs at The Hare and Hounds at Connah’s Quay.

Ben Randles left and the pub doors were locked and bolted but he returned and there a threat to smash the back door unless it was opened.

Armed police officers arrived outside the premises, Mold Crown Court was told.

Ben Randles and his twin brother Andrew were arrested without tazers being fired and a knife was recovered nearby.

Ben Randles, of St Mark’s Avenue in Connah’s Quay, was jailed for two years after he had previously admitted affray and possessing a black handled kitchen knife.

An affray charge against his twin, of the same address, was dropped. The court heard he had been seen trying to pull his brother away.

Judge David Hale said it was “a disgraceful piece of violent” where he had threatened with a knife.

“The poor girl in the pub was only doing her job,” he said.

She was not allowed to serve drunks.

He said she gave him a drink initially because she was frightened of him but when he was told to go he returned with a knife but when sober he realised how wrong he had been and pleaded guilty.

The judge said he accepted that when the defendant was not on a drinking binge, then he was capable and hard work and helping people.

In addition to the two year sentence, the defendant was made the subject of a two licencing exclusion order from the Hare and Hounds and also from The Custom House in the town where he had previously caused trouble.

Prosecutor Elen Owen said when the barmaid at The Hare and Hounds refused to serve them  Ben Randles pulled out a knife and said he wanted a pint or he would stab her.

He was later seen outside where he stopped a car driven by a woman when he was brandishing the knife.

His brother was trying to prevent him from going across to some workmen when police arrived.

Randles had a number of previous convictions for public order offences.

Barrister Matthew Curtis, defending, said it was no excuse but the explanation was that he had been drinking for two days.

He had never previously sought help with his drinking but his arrest on this occasion had been a wake-up call.

The defendant was planning to engage with the alcohol services in custody.

He had an unenviable record for one so young.

Mr Curtis said: “He cannot offer any mitigation for what he did.”

It was a bizarre incident and he accepted that people had been genuinely frightened by what he did that morning on January 15.

BLOB Randles appealed against a 10-day term of imprisonment imposed by magistrates for possessing cocaine and a public order offence on January 13 and the sentence was replaced with a £120 fine.