Pub-goers alerted bar staff to a man carrying a large knife inside the boozer’s toilets as he sipped pints at the venue.
Alan Mulcahy, who previously held up a shopkeeper with a BB gun and a blade, had been drinking beers at The City Arms in Canterbury when a fellow customer spotted him hiding the weapon at the city centre nightspot.
After door staff searched the 34-year-old, they found a large folding pocket knife on him at the venue in Butchery Lane.
Police were called and Mulcahy was arrested at the scene.
He was later charged with possessing a bladed article in public and pleaded guilty to the offence when he appeared in the dock at Folkestone Magistrates’ Court on June 19.
The bench was told it is not the first time, Mulcahy, of Cornwall Gardens, Canterbury, has been found concealing a weapon in public.
Lucie Fish, prosecuting, said: “A customer alerted staff to the fact they had seen someone in the toilet with a knife on him.”
Mulcahy was aged 17 when he and his brother robbed a shop in Herne Bay with a BB gun and a knife.
The pair told shopkeeper Janek Patel he would be shot dead unless he handed over cash but he refused and the brothers fled Kings Road Store empty-handed.
In 2008, at Canterbury Crown Court, Mulcahy’s older brother, David, was locked up for five years for attempted robbery, while he was sent to a young offenders’ institution for four years for the crime and possessing an imitation firearm.
In 2020, Mulcahy was also involved in the robbery of a £10,000 handmade gold watch from a 55-year-old man who broke his hip during the attack in Maidstone.
The victim was thrown to the ground and, as he lay writhing in agony, was told by Mulcahy: “Give me your watch or I will cut your throat!”
Mulcahy, who lived in Chatham at the time, was jailed for three years and seven months after admitting the robbery.
During his latest court appearance, magistrates decided they wanted to find out more about him and his reasons for his offending.
They adjourned the sentencing to allow a pre-sentencing report to be completed on him before he learns his fate.
He was granted bail until his sentencing hearing, which will be held at the same court on August 21.
