AA ROBBER said to have been 'desperate to go down the right path' has managed just 30 minutes of unpaid work in the nine months since he was spared an immediate jail sentence.

Daniel Lewis, then 24, was given an 18 month suspended prison term last August for robbing an Audi driver of his jacket and headbutting him at a gathering in the Banbury M&S car park.

Appearing before Oxford Crown Court on Monday morning, Lewis, of Middleton Cheney, near Banbury, admitted the second breach of the judge’s suspended sentence order.

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Judge Michael Gledhill QC heard that Lewis was given an extra five unpaid work hours in January after he admitted breaching the order.

But since then had missed further probation appointments. Since he was sentenced last August he has managed just 30 minutes out of the – now - 155 hours of unpaid work he is required to complete.

Dana Bilan, mitigating, said her client had struggled with his mental health. He was working for Sainsbury’s at the beginning of the year but lost the job when they realised he was on probation, she added.

The judge adjourned the case for medical reports to be obtained by Lewis’ defence lawyers. He told the defendant: “As you’ve just heard me say, I’ve got two choices in this case at the moment.

“I can either adjourn your case for proper medical evidence to be produced or I can send you to prison for 18 months and I’m going to adjourn the case until June 20 for your solicitors to get the medical evidence.”

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Last year, the court heard Daniel Lewis and his younger friend Lewis Beith were at a gathering in the Marks and Spencer car park in Banbury on October 26, 2020.

The men went up to their victim’s white Audi and started asking him a number of questions. As the talking descended into shoving, Lewis and Beith began to let air out of the Audi’s tyres.

Lewis demanded the man’s black jacket and snatched it, then headbutted him in the face. A friend of the robbery victim was then punched in the face by the co-defendant.

He got into his Vauxhall Astra, put it in reverse and smashed into the Audi, causing almost £500-worth of damage.

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James Keeley, defending Lewis last year, said his client was ‘desperate to go down the right path’.

Recorder John Hardy QC warned both defendants: “I come to this court periodically. If I come to this court in the next two years and you come to this court in the next two years, you will remember me and I will remember you. Make sure you understand that.”

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