A 22-year-old passenger in a car stopped by police had a lock-knife in his pocket.

Blackburn magistrates heard Ross Eltoft had been rabbiting with his dogs and had forgotten he had the knife in his pocket.

Eltoft, of Denbeigh Grove, Burnley, pleaded guilty to possession of a knife in a public place. He was given a conditional discharge for six months and ordered to pay £100 costs.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Eltoft was called ‘almost immediately’ on his return home ‘from a friend who was driving over to Accrington and asked if he wanted to come along’.

“The knife was still in his jacket pocket when he left the house and there is no suggestion it was brandished or even taken out until the police stopped them,” Mr Church-Taylor added.