A MAN who took a hunting knife to Dudley Magistrates Court cost taxpayers £2,800 for a trial which left a judge perplexed.

Security officers saw 45-year-old John Davies go outside the building after he changed his mind about going through a scanner.

The suspicious security men then watched him on CCTV hiding something underneath a nearby bush and when they checked they discovered it was the large knife.

Davies had pleaded not guilty to possessing a bladed article when he accompanied a friend to the magistrates’ court, but he was convicted by a jury after they retired to consider the evidence at the end of his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Judge Michael Challinor told Davies he had been found guilty on the "clearest possible evidence" adding: "What possessed you to elect trial I simply do not understand."

He said the case had left the taxpayers with a bill for £2,800 as he told Davies: "Knife crime is of course extremely serious and carrying one without a reasonable excuse is a crime committed by far too many people."

Elizabeth Power defending Davies, of Hurst Road, Coseley, stressed to the court he had not used the weapon to threaten or cause fear.

She said he continued to maintain he found the knife and it had been in a bag when it was concealed underneath a bush outside the court building.

He was placed on supervision for two years, ordered to pay £500 towards the costs of the case and told he must carry out 50 hours unpaid work in the community.