A man “panicked” when a machete fell out of his jacket in a Spalding pub, a court heard.
JoJo Taylor (23) quickly left with the weapon and hid it in a drainhole, returning with bleach with the intention to wipe it clean of his fingerprints.
However, police had been called and arrested him in Market Place.
Taylor, who has learning difficulties, said in interview that he’d borrowed the jacket and had never seen the machete before. But during preparation of a pre-sentence report with a Probation officer at Boston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, he said he used the knife for small jobs.
Taylor, of South Fen Road, Bourne, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife blade in a public place at about 4.30pm on March 30.
Prosecutor Turan Surat said: “The defendant was in the Punchbowl pub in Spalding with his brother.
“The defendant got up to pick his coat up at which point a machete fell out of his jacket. He can be seen on CCTV leaving the pub and disposing of the machete in a drainhole near Herring Lane and Double Street.”
Taylor told police in interview that he had apologised to people in the pub before immediately leaving and hiding the weapon.
Mr Sunat added: “He went to buy bleach to cleanse the knife of his fingerprints, so keen was he to distance himself from it.
“He accepted he went back to the scene to clean the machete. That’s where police intercepted him and arrested him.”
Taylor said the cleaning plan was done in a “moment of panic”.
Michel Elvin, mitigating, said: “My instructions are that he panicked. It wasn’t his coat, he borrowed it.
“When he found [the machete] was in there, he panicked.”
The Probation officer told the court that Taylor had a “low-level intelligence capacity” and had shown “significant remorse”.
She added that his explanation of having the knife conflicted with what he had previously told police.
The defendant was given a three-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 costs and £26 victim surcharge.
An order was made for the forfeiture and destruction of the knife.
