A released prisoner who had just a day of freedom before he was back inside was jailed for three years today for a kidnap.
Jason Davies used his £40 discharge money to go on a drugs and booze bender before he was caught on CCTV frogmarching a man through the streets at knifepoint.
The 34-year-old said that he was trying to recover cash that he had lent the man for their afternoon drugs session with a woman and another discharged prisoner.
Prosecutor Shaun Dryden told Teesside Crown Court that Davies was tracked by cameras for more than half a mile in the early hours as he dragged the man through the centre of Stockton to a hotel where the victim was staying.
Davies, from Stockton, had threatened to stab him through the heart with the eight-inch kitchen knife unless he handed over money which he said he had in his room.
When they reached the hotel the man was able to run away, and Davies took a taxi back to where he had left the other released prisoner but he had left.
Davies was arrested at 4AM after he had stolen a purse from a young woman in his attempts to get money.
At the police station he refused to come out of his cell to be interviewed.
Mr Dryden said that Davies had 21 convictions for 103 offences for burglary and motoring, and in 1997 he was given four years youth custody for burglary.
Michael Bosomworth, defending, said that Davies’ estranged wife had offered to take him back with the promise of a job with her uncle if he kept out of trouble on his next release.
He said that Davies and the other prisoner had been looking for accommodation when they ended up taking drugs and alcohol with the other man’s ex-girlfriend and her new partner.
When they ran out of drugs the woman’s partner borrowed money from Davies saying that he would repay it at midnight when his Benefit reached his bank account, but that did not happen.
Davies got the knife from the kitchen in a desperate attempt to make him pay up with cash he claimed to have back at his hotel room.
He had been in custody since the incident on August 2 and he had used the time to take a drugs course.
He also had seven years without offending during which he married and had a family and a job until his brother’s death sent him off the rails two years ago.
The judge told Davies that it was a very serious matter which was very close to an attempted robbery with a knife which would attract a starting point sentence for four years.
Judge Howard Crowson said: “I have read a letter in which you express some hopes which are supported by your antecedents.”
Davies, of Hartington Road, Parkfield, Stockton, was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and possessing a bladed article.
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