A MAN brandished a ten-inch meat cleaver at residents of a homeless hostel in an attempt to retrieve his stolen bicycle, a court has heard.

Nacereddine Amoruni, 52, of Heygate Avenue in Southend, admitted possessing a blade article at Basildon Crown Court after “waving the weapon around while shouting” in York Road on September 11.

Defence barrister Omar Sabbagh told the court that Amoruni, an Algerian national who has lived in the UK for 20 years, had himself been the victim of a crime the same day.

“At around 6pm, he had been effectively mugged or beaten up by some individuals who had stolen his bike,” he told Judge Samantha Leigh.

“He called the police but didn’t really get any response or engagement from the police for one to two hours.”

Thinking he might know who had stolen his bike and where they might have chained it up, said Mr Sabbagh, Amoruni armed himself with his meat cleaver and set out to reclaim it.

Prosecutor Fred Batstone said it was at around 9pm, outside Vera House – a Harp homeless shelter on York Road – that Amoruni brandished the weapon.

A witness reported that after “being shouted at by residents he responded by walking into the front garden and shouting at them,” said Mr Batstone.

When one of the residents began hitting Amoruni with his crutches, he produced the cleaver and began waving it around.

The court never heard whether the stolen bicycle had actually been at Vera House.

“Police later found two meat cleavers in the defendant’s property,” Mr Batstone added.

Mr Sabbagh told the court Amoruni did not currently have leave to work in the UK. Through an interpreter, the defendant said he had “lost his documents”.

He had previous convictions in the UK for using a false instrument in 2004 (a forgery offence), and a driving offence in 2020.

Judge Leigh sentenced him to six months for the incident, but suspended the sentence for 12 months and ordered him to complete 80 hours of unpaid work.

She also ordered confiscation of Amoruni’s meat cleavers.