A MAN with a large machete was arrested by armed police after confronting a group of takeaway workers with the weapon.

Kaywan Abdulrahman, 19, was caught at the Esso garage on Chepstow Road in Newport by firearms officers.

The defendant had pulled the machete from his tracksuit moments earlier after he had gone up to a car at the junction of Harrow Road and Bedford Road.

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Cat Jones, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court: “He was on an electric scooter and had approached a group of takeaway workers who were in the vehicle .

“The defendant used the torch on his mobile phone and started acting aggressively and shouting, ‘What are you doing here?’

“He then pulled a large machete from inside his tracksuit and held it towards them.

“The men sitting in the car wound down the window and told him in broken Arabic, ‘We are no trouble.’

“They believed the defendant was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

They called the police and followed Abdulrahman who went to the Esso garage.

There they “corralled” him until the armed officers came and arrested him.

The defendant was arrested and taken to Ystrad Mynach police station where he kicked PC Nicholas Fry.

He lied to police about the machete incident and claimed the men in the car had kidnapped him and beaten him up.

Abdulrahman, of no fixed abode, Newport, admitted possession of a bladed article in public after a jury had been sworn in for a trial.

He also pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker.

The offences took place in October 2021.

The court was told the defendant has seven previous convictions for 17 offences.

They included robbery, possession of a bladed article, assaulting police officers, motoring and drugs offences.

Stuart John, representing Abdulrahman, said: “The defendant is an extremely vulnerable and had a horrific background.”

He came to the UK at the age of 14 from Iraq and “suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder”.

Mr John said his client had already spent the equivalent of a 16-month sentence in custody after being held on remand.

The judge, Recorder John Philpotts, told Abdulrahman: “You are 19 and still young but it’s time you started to show signs of growing up.”

He added: “I’ve seen a photograph of the machete – it’s a frightening implement.”

The defendant was sent to a young offender institution for 12 months but that sentence was adjourned for two years.

He was made the subject of a 24-month community which includes a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement.