A DRUNKEN man asked to be shown guns at a Hereford city centre shop.

Kirill Cerneckij admitted one count of theft and two counts of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour likely to cause alarm or distress when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Prosecutor Owen Beale said a "clearly intoxicated" Cerneckij had gone into Widemarsh Street's Philip Morris shop on May 2, approaching a young female member of staff and telling her he wanted her to get him a gun on May 1.

He was told to leave the premises by other members of staff, but was back in Widemarsh Street the next day, where he was seen staring at the same member of staff as she walked to work.

Cerneckij entered the shop again at around 11.40am that day, Mr Beale said, asking the same employee to be shown the shop's guns, and again being told to leave by other members of staff.

The theft came some weeks later, on May 17, when he left Primark without paying for a bandanna and was detained by security staff, the court heard.

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Chris Read, for Cerneckij, said the 24-year-old had been drunk and had little memory of the Philip Morris incidents.

"He apologises for his behaviour," Mr Read said.

"He did not have any intention of causing any distress, but clearly he did."

Mr Read said Cerneckij also regretted the theft, which he said had happened because he had lost patience with waiting in a queue at the tills.

"He was stopped outside the door and offered to pay £1.50 to the man who had stopped him, but was taken to the police station."

Cerneckij, who is of no fixed address, was ordered to pay compensation of £100 to the member of Philip Morris staff and received a 12-month restraining order banning him from entering the shop or contacting her.