A sacked employee told his former boss he would 'chop his head off' and trash his premises after a row over holiday pay.
Christopher Longworth, 34, had been employed by Speke Fencing and Gates and his vandalism rampage caused £15,000 worth of damage and put jobs at risk.
The dad-of-two made threats to his former boss, Michael Lynch, including one which said: “I want my holiday payments. If I don’t get them I’ll come down and chop your head off and cut your throat.”
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Martyn Walsh, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that Longworth was fired on May 28 last year and after leaving the company made a series of telephone calls to Mr Lynch.
As well as threatening to kill him he also said he had been outside his home.
On July 30 Mr Lynch locked up his business premises in Edwards Lane, Speke, for the night but was later contacted by a member of staff saying someone had broken in.
CCTV footage showed the defendant going in and out of the premises in the early hours of the morning. He had thrown paint over a van and smashed its windscreen, left taps running causing flooding and caused damage in the office.
In an impact statement Mr Lynch said he had been impacted psychologically as the defendant knew where he lived and had made threats and he was worried about his family.
Stock was ruined by water and paint thrown over them and jobs could not be completed.
Mr Walsh said: “Longworth had thrown stain over some products and they were ruined and had to go into a skip.”
Customers were disappointed that their jobs could not be done and Mr Lynch said he had sleepless nights and his wife was upset as she knew how hard he had worked to get the business up and running.
Mr Walsh said: "He thought about closing the business down as he was not sure he would be able to recover from the damage. He employs four other people and the business had gone under they would have been affected."
Mr Lynch said it took him a week to clean up his premises and he felt betrayed by Longworth as he felt he had let him down when he had given him “chance after chance” while he was employed there.
He concluded his statement by saying he still did not feel safe and was unable to forgive the defendant.
Longworth, 34, of Lincoln Street, Garston, pleaded guilty to harassment and burglary.
The court heard that he has previous convictions including several for criminal damage.
Jailing Longworth for 16 months a judge told him: “In an act of sheer revenge you damaged his property, damaged his office and put at risk not only the business but the jobs of everyone who relies upon it.
“The threats had left him not feeling safe and fearing for his family."
William McGill, defending, said that Longworth was lightly convicted and lived with his partner and their two sons.
He has since found new employment with Jaguar Land Rover for a trial period.
Mr McGill said that the defendant had “a troubled childhood and at times of stress he appears to lean heavily on the use of alcohol and this particular occasion was one such incident.”
He said Longworth had been angry and had gone along half expecting to find Mr Lynch at the premises but the judge pointed out it had been about 1.30am and Longworth turned up with his hood up and was inside for 45 minutes.
Mr McGill said: “He realises the way he went about resolving his problems on this occasion were wrong and he apologises.”
In sentencing Recorder Jon Close told Longworth that after being dismissed he had been “Left with a sense of grievance. Whatever the rights and wrongs of that there are legitimate avenues to resolve those disputes.
“What you chose to do was to send a series of messages, one of which we have heard today and you threatened to chop his head off and cut his throat.
“It is difficult to put into terms how distressing it could be to receive that type of threat and the harassment continued culminating with your attack on the premises.
“Nothing was taken, it wasn’t for financial gain. It was an act of revenge.”
He pointed out that it happened during the covid restrictions when small businesses were struggling to survive.
The judge said he had “deliberately targeted the premises, caused a significant degree of loss and sheer vandalism of the property.”
He said it took place against a background of harassment and was so serious only an immediate jail sentence was justified. He also imposed a five year restraining order to keep away from his victim.
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