A machete wielder was said to have gone into a barbershop armed with the knife in revenge for having been chased earlier in the day.

Adil Taseem, 22, was filmed brandishing the blade in Trinder’s Barbershop in Church Lane, Banbury, at around 2.30pm on Saturday (May 27).

In mobile phone footage that had gone viral on social media within hours of the incident, Taseem could be seen smiling at the camera as he left the shop.

He was heard telling the cameraman: “Yeah, alright, continue recording mate.” Wearing a black tracksuit and white 'slider'-style flip-flops, he put the red-handled machete down his trousers as he ran off north towards Parson’s Street.

Another man, wearing a black hood and seen in the barbershop together with the defendant, ran off the pedestrianised street ahead of Taseem. There was no mention of this individual when the case came before the magistrates’ court on Tuesday.

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Appearing in the dock at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday afternoon (May 30), Taseem, of Manor Road, Banbury, pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article and using threatening behaviour.

Prosecutor Kathleen O’Callaghan said the defendant was interviewed at Aylesbury police station on Bank Holiday Monday and answered no comment to all questions asked of him by the interviewing police officers.

He had no previous convictions, the court heard.

The prosecutor claimed that police believed the defendant was ‘quite high up’ in a County Lines-type drugs operation and machete incident was a form of ‘retribution’.

Nawaz Khan, defending, said that suggestion was ‘very much denied’. He told the district judge: “There was an earlier incident where he was threatened and in a moment of foolishness has got this knife and gone to this barbershop.

“The people that had been chasing him; he believed they were there. He was there for a very short period of time.”

Summarising the incident, Mr Khan said: “A very unsophisticated offence, very foolish and very much on the spur of the moment.”

READ MORE: Man charged with having machete in Banbury

Committing the case to the crown court on June 29, the judge said: “Your next appearance will be at the crown court because I take the view that these offences are too serious for me to deal with at this court.”

She refused bail and remanded Taseem in custody. District Judge Rana said: “I do that on the basis of the very serious nature of these offences and what I consider to be [the inevitability] that you will receive a custodial sentence for waving around a machete in a public place in a manner that has been described.

“This was you acting in revenge, effectively as a result of what you say somebody did to you, and that creates in my mind a risk that you will commit further offences.”