A WOMAN who threatened restaurant staff with a knife pleaded with a judge not to send her to prison because all she’ll do is ‘watch television’.

Chloe Keates, 28, was charged with one count of affray after threatening staff members at Bakery House in London Street, Reading, in the early hours of July 7 this year.

She entered the restaurant through a back entrance off Church Street and used a broom handle and a knife to threaten staff into handing over money.

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At Reading Crown Court on Thursday (September 21), she pleaded with Judge Amjad Nawaz to not send her to jail as he’d be ‘sentencing her to watch television’.

Speaking over a video link from HMP Bronzefield, she said: “I understand I’m not a perfect person but I do want to change my life and if you give me a custodial sentence it wouldn’t solve the problem as all I’ll do is sit here and watch television.”

Judge Nawaz gave her a five-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Opening the case, prosecutor Robert Forrest said Keates, alongside another unidentified woman, had ‘armed herself with a broom handle’ and ‘started making demands for money’ at the Lebanese restaurant staff.

When the manager approached her to warned him not to come closer as she has hepatitis. She then brandished a kitchen knife before the manager called the police.

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Keates made no comment during the police interview but later pleaded guilty to the offence.

The court heard that she has 56 convictions for 128 previous offences, the first offence being committed when she was just 13-years-old.

Defence barrister Michael Harrison said Keates was approached by the unnamed woman and asked for help which was why she was involved.

He added that if she goes to prison she will lose her accommodation and become homeless which would ‘repeat the cycle’ of offending.

Pleading with Judge Nawaz, Keates said: “I want to change my life, I know I’m not perfect but I promise if you give me one more chance I won’t mess up again.

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“You’d just be sentencing me to watch television for a couple of months – I really want to change. I know I’ve made mistakes but in the grand scheme of things, it’s silliness.”

After handing her a suspended sentence, Judge Nawaz said: “The ball is in your court. You said if I gave you one more chance you would not return to your old habit, so it’s down to you now.”