A 37-year-old man has been jailed for seriously assaulting a member of the public and damaging several slot machines at a casino in Warrington.
Constantin Lupo, of Fredrick Street, Widnes, was jailed for eight months after a four-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
He was found guilty of criminal damage, inflicting grievous bodily harm and the possession of a bladed article in public.
The court heard on June 11 Lupo, caused £8,734 worth of damage by using a bar stool to smash five slot machines at the casino in the Cockhedge Shopping Centre, Warrington.
After he had damaged the slot machines, a member of the public attempted to intervene and stop Lupo from committing any further damage and fleeing the scene.
However, during the confrontation, Lupo assaulted him with a lock knife, resulting in the man sustaining multiple injuries, including cuts to the back of the head, arms and legs.
Despite this, the knife was removed from Lupo by members of the public and restraining Lupo until police officers arrived and arrested him.
In his interview with police, Lupo denied criminal damage, but did say he had gotten angry at the slot machines, which had been “lying” to him.
Lupo also stated that a member of the public had tried to stop him from leaving the premises, and therefore, he pushed the person to the ground. He denied causing the injuries with the lock knife.
After the hearing, Detective Constable Stephan Wolstenholme said: “Even in light of Constantin Lupo maintaining his innocence throughout the entire investigation and forcing the victim to relive the incident in court all over again, I do hope that today’s result offers some reassurance to the victim involved in this unjustified and violent ordeal.
“This could have been a potentially life-threatening situation for the member of staff who had, rightfully, challenged Lupo, who could not handle the result of his afternoon of gambling and caused a substantial amount of damage to several machines he had been using.
“The victim was simply doing all they could to stop Lupo’s rampage and did not deserve to be violently attacked. Cheshire Police treats every report of assault with the utmost seriousness, and our officers will do everything they can to get victims the justice they deserve.”
