Chain-swinging thug barged into Leeds woman's home and threatened to kill her
A furious man went to a woman’s home armed with a metal chain over a debt incurred by her son, making threats to kill them both.
Alex Bennett let himself into the woman’s home looking for her son, then demanded she hand over her bank card while menacingly swinging the chain.
The 37-year-old admitted making threats to kill and possession of Class B drugs during a sentencing hearing at Leeds Crown Court, but was only spared immediate custody because of his children.
It was heard the woman had been at home in the Cross Gates area on April 11, 2023, when she received a call from Bennett, who told her: “You better have my money or I’m going to kill you.”
Prosecutor Timothy Jacobs said the woman did not owe him, but her son did. It was disputed whether it was over a drug debt or money owed for a bicycle.
Half an hour after the call, Bennett turned up at her home. He first struck the back door with the chain, then let himself in and confronted the woman as she was at on her sofa.
The court heard he was swinging the chain around, repeated his threat to kill her and her son, and then wanted her bank card.
She did not give him the card and went looking for her son around the house before returning to the living room.
He laughed when she said she was going to call the police, but he then left.
Bennett was arrested later that day. He was found to have cannabis on him. The chain was also found.
Bennett, of Town Street, Middleton, has previous convictions including possession of drugs.
Mitigating, Ian Cook said: “This was a day where the defendant engaged his mouth before he engaged his brain.”
He said it was his misuse of cannabis that triggered his offending. Bennett and his partner also have four children between them aged between five and 13, and that his partner was to undergo an operation.
Bennett does not work due to his long-standing mental health issues, but had “set himself goals” to stop using cannabis and get into employment.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar told Bennett: “Whether it was a drug debt or related to the sale of a bicycle, it does not matter.
“You are not entitled to enforce your debts in the manner you did.
“It thoroughly merits a custodial sentence - you can’t simply walk into somebody else’s house and make threats like you did.”
He said the only issue that prevents him from imposing immediate custody was his partner’s pending hospital visit and that he was needed to look after the children.
He told him: “It’s your only saving grace.”
He gave Bennett a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, gave him 150 hours of unpaid work and told to pay £300 compensation to the woman.