A CARLISLE car wash worker feared he would be killed when an irate customer brandished a blade as a seven-year-old boy watched in horror.

As Cumbria police today (Monday) launched their latest week-long knife crime crackdown, Abraar Darr was slammed by a judge at the city’s crown court who reminded him that “lives are ruined” and lost by the use of weapons.

Darr, 42, had pulled into the car wash, off London Road, at around 1pm on May 7.

“He moved into the mechanical car wash,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke. “But the electricity had cut itself off so he was asked to reverse back out so it could be reactivated, which he seemed to take exception to.”

He made an abusive comment to a car wash attendant, of whom Mr Burke said: “He responded calmly to that, saying ‘thank you very much’ and continued to behave politely.”

After the car was washed, Darr made an abusive gesture to the man as he left the forecourt. The man, having lost patience, returned that gesture with one of his own.

“That caused the defendant to turn around abruptly on London Road, almost causing him to crash into other vehicles on the road and returned to the forecourt,” said Mr Burke.

Darr approached the man with a hand behind his back but then brought that to the fore, revealing that he was holding a Stanley-type knife.

The prosecutor said of Darr: “He said to (the man) ‘oi, you, swearing at me, I will cut you up’.

“There is short video footage of this. The man used his mobile phone to record. He says that he thought he was going to be killed. It only stopped, (the man) thought, because the defendant realised he was recording.

“He thought about the prospect of never seeing his wife or unborn child.”

It was a family-run business, said Mr Burke, with the man’s uncle and two children — one aged just seven — present at the time.

“The seven-year-old was particularly affected and burst into tears because of this incident,” he told the court. “He describes his fears for the seven-year-old nephew, expecting he would be very shaken and unable to sleep.”

Darr, of Orfeur Street, Carlisle, was stopped minutes later by police who found the knife inside his vehicle.

In interview, when quizzed about the crime, he initially claimed there had been “five or six of them” and that other people present had been armed as well. When brought to court he admitted a charge of threatening a person with a blade in public.

Claire Larton, giving mitigation, said Darr realised he had made a “huge mistake” which was wholly out of character for him. Supportive references provided to the court told how Darr was ordinarily deemed calm, a pleasure to be around, caring and responsible.

“He says that he is ashamed,” said Miss Larton. “He is somebody who can be rehabilitated.

The judge, Recorder Tony Hawks, agreed. He opted not to impose an immediate minimum mandatory prison sentence which could have been handed down.

Instead he suspended a nine-month jail term for 18 months, and ordered Darr to complete rehabilitation work with the probation service.

“He needs to talk to somebody about keeping his temper,” the judge had observed.

Recorder Hawks then said to Darr: “How such a mundane activity as having your car washed could escalate into the extent of you producing a knife and threatening people I have no idea.”

He added: “People get killed with knives, seriously injured, lives are ruined. It seems to me this is a bad case of its sort.”