A DRUNKEN thug who threatened to stab strangers with a broken glass bottle has dodged prison.

Zifiso Ncube had left a party in the early hours of July 8, 2018, and was making his way home when he started targeting cars in Pleasant Road, Southend.

The 23-year-old drunkenly stumbled into one car which “upset him” and so he proceeded to start smashing up three vehicles in the street.

One of the cars had to be written off.

After hearing the noise, residents came out into the street and confronted Ncube who armed himself with a plank of wood.

Sentencing him at Basildon Crown Court yesterday, Judge Samantha Leigh said: “They found you walking away from cars you had damaged.

“When someone says something to you, you’re seen to then to get verbally aggressive with the lady and gentleman.

“You broke a glass bottle, there’s shouting and you are aggressive to them.”

The court heard Ncube, of Jones Close, Southend, held the broken glass bottle by the neck with the jagged edge towards the victims and began shouting: “I’m going to cut you. I’m going to stab you.”

He was held back from reaching them by a fourth person before police arrived.

Ncube was charged with three counts of criminal damage to property valued under £5,000 and one count of threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place.

Jacob Levy ,mitigating, said Ncube did not seek to minimise his offences and made full admissions when interviewed by the police.

He appeared at Southend Magistrates’ Court on September 17 last year where he admitted the charges but due to the nature of the offences, the case was committed to Basildon Crown Court for sentencing.

Judge Leigh handed Ncube one year and six months but suspended the sentence for 12 months.

As conditions of his suspended sentence, he must complete 250 hours of unpaid work, 30 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement and the Thinking Skills programme.

Ncube was also ordered to pay £320 in compensation and banned from entering Pleasant Road for two years.