A MAN whose “obnoxious” behaviour forced a shopworker to quit her job has been jailed for two years.

Silviu Petcu, of no fixed abode, but formerly of Osborne Road South, Southampton, appeared at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday last week to be sentenced for a raft of offences.

On March 4, this year, Petcu visited the Co-op store, in High Street, Alton, where he appeared to be about to buy a bottle of wine, but instead went behind the case machine and turned it off to plug his phone in.

Later in the evening he returned to shop, on that occasion he actually spat at employee Lisa Churchill and at the machine that counts the number of customers in the store.

The 27-year-old was arrested and bailed, with conditions not to attend the Co-op store, but on March 15 he returned to the shop. He was challenged by Ms Churchill when he took a bottle of Shiraz wine off the shelf and drank from it, before laughing.

He left the shop but proceeded to kick the bin outside and was “generally being unpleasant”, so staff decided to pull down the shutters until he went away.

“He went to the window on the side, pulled down his trousers, took out his penis, held it and gestured to them,” prosecutor Anne-Marie Critchley said.

Police were called and while being arrested Petcu grabbed the hand of PC Pembridge, using his fingernails he drew blood from her hand.

Ms Critchley said: “Ms Churchill, due to the incident that day and previous incident, she is resigning from her role from that shop as she no longer feels safe.”

On March 20, 2020, Petcu was stopped in Dewsbury Road, Havant, after police spotted the green Skoda, he was driving, acting strangely.

He admitted that there was cannabis in the car, but 10 deal bags containing cocaine were found in his trousers. The drugs were worth £520 and his passenger had £560 on them.

The court was told that Petcu had arrived from Romania earlier in the year and not found work so “has been making money by committing crimes”.

In mitigation, Joseph Carr said Petcu followed his sister’s path by coming to the UK to try and find employment but found it difficult to find work. He then became involved in drug dealing and would send money back home to his mother.

Referring to the indecent exposure incident, Mr Carr said that it was “more obnoxious than sexual”.

He also told the court that Petcu “became homeless at the tail end of last year, begging for food and money”.

Mr Recorder Newton-Price QC jailed Petcu for two years after he previously pleaded guilty to indecent exposure, theft, assault on an emergency worker, assault, criminal damage, possession of cannabis and possession with intent to supply cocaine.