A vengeful forklift-truck driver laid siege to his former workplace and tried to smash his way into the security office after arming himself with a golf club.
Craig Lesley Matthews, 62, had been barred from entering the Greencore site in Selby after turning up at the factory intent on causing mayhem, York Crown Court heard.
After being suspended from his role at the company, Matthews made the spurious claim that he had been scapegoated because he wrote poetry at work, said prosecutor Nick Peacock.
Despite being banned from the site on Barlby Road, Matthews repeatedly turned up at the factory threatening security guards with violence over several weeks until he turned up with the golf club one December night last year.
Mr Peacock said that Matthews had worked at the factory as a forklift-truck driver until being suspended, which led to his resignation in October 2023.
“He took umbrage with his former employers, making unwanted attendance at the site,” he added.
Despite warnings that he was not allowed on the site, such was his “obsession” with his former employer that he kept returning.
He was escorted off the site by a security man on 30 November, only to return two hours later, banging on the gatehouse door and shouting: “Open this door. I’m going to smash your fxxxxxx face in.”
Matters came to a head on 2 December when Matthews drove his car up to the security gate, got out and started banging on the gatehouse door, shouting: “Open the fxxxxxx door.”
He went back to his car, took a golf club out of the boot and then attacked the outer security-office door, smashing a glass panel. As he did so, he shouted: “Come out! I’ll smash your face in. Come out and fight.”
He then tried to force the door open to get into the security office. When that failed, he tried to climb through the broken window.
He was prevented from doing so by a security official who kept Matthews at bay by pushing him away with an upturned coat stand.
Pepper sprayed
Police were called out again and had to pepper-spray Matthews three times to bring him under control. He was arrested and taken to Fulford Road Police Station in York.
“He told police that his grievance was that he was suspended for writing poetry at work,” said Mr Peacock.
He said that had led to him having “irrational thoughts” and that was why he turned up and behaved as he did despite the site ban.
Matthews, of Oak Drive, Newport Brough, near Howden, was charged with affray, carrying an offensive weapon and criminal damage. He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence yesterday (Tuesday) after being remanded in Hull Prison.
Defence barrister Rhianydd Clement said that Matthews, who had never been in trouble before, had been suffering with depression and anxiety at the time of the incident.
A subsequent psychiatric report revealed he had been “hearing voices” and that he “appeared to be going through some sort of breakdown”.
He no longer had any income except his pension and was described in the pre-sentence probation report as an “isolated individual with no other contact outside work” except a few family members.
Judge Simon Hickey described the offences as “peculiar and disturbing”.
He told Matthews: “What occasioned you to have a breakdown seems to be your anxiety and depression, but at the time, when you resigned, you told people you were being punished for writing poetry at work.”
He said that Matthews had acted out of “resentment” because his employers no longer wanted him on the site and that the former forklift-truck driver had “made yourself a real nuisance”.
Matthews was given a five-month prison sentence, but this triggered his immediate release from jail due to the time of time he had spent on remand.
He was ordered to pay Greencore, a leading producer of convenience foods, £250 compensation for the damage to the glass window which was “kicked out” and £85 prosecution costs.
In addition, he was made subject to a five-year restraining order which bans him from going within a hundred yards of the site’s gatehouse and prohibits him posting anything about the company on social media.