A MAN tried to conceal a knife brandished by his companion in drunken fashion outside a nightclub.

Police were flagged down by security staff outside Vibe, in Bede Way, Peterlee, at 12.30am on November 25, last year, amid concern over two men in verbal confrontation with taxi drivers.

Durham Crown Court heard police were told the larger of the pair had waved a knife.

Ashleigh Leach, prosecuting, said police stopped and searched the man pinpointed by the doormen, but nothing was found.

They then searched Thomas Gibbon, who was taken to the ground, as he tried to conceal the knife.

The 4in-long closed lock knife was recovered from his hand behind his back and he claimed someone else “chucked it” in his direction.

He gave no comment in interview but the 20-year-old defendant, of Alston Cresacent, Sunderland, admitted possessing a knife in public, at a previous court hearing.

Miss Leach said it was accepted the door staff told police Gibbon had been trying to calm his friend.

The court was told the only other conviction against Gibbon was a battery offence, for which he received a community order and unpaid work, in February this year.

Ian Martin, mitigating, said his client had tried to “remove the harm from the situation”, but Judge Christopher Prince told him it sounded as if the defendant was trying to hide the knife for his friend and did not volunteer it to police.

Mr Martin said: “He was somewhat worse the wear from pretty much everything.”

Judge Prince replied: “He was clearly ‘off his head’, to put it colloquially.”

But after remanding Gibbon in custody over the lunch adjournment he imposed a three-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, during the first six months of which he will have to observe a 7pm to 7am home curfew and attend ten probation rehabilitation activity days.

Gibbon was also ordered to pay £340 costs and £115 statutory surcharge.