A MAN has been given a community order after being caught travelling through Welshpool with a knuckle duster.

Luke Westerman pleaded guilty to possessing an offensive weapon in public when he appeared at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday, April 13.

Helen Tench, prosecuting, said Westerman, 20, was travelling in a vehicle with a group of three other passengers from the Telford area, when they were stopped by police on the A483 at around 11pm on March 4 this year.

Officers found a knuckle duster under the front passenger seat and when Westerman was questioned he explained that he was from Telford, did not know the Welshpool area and had it in his possession for self-defence as he did not want to be attacked. He had ordered the weapon from online shopping site Wish.

Robert Hanratty, defending, said Westerman was probably not aware of the seriousness of the charge.

"He showed a lack of perception of the seriousness of carrying something like this, a lack of awareness of culpability", he said.

Julian Davies, of the probation service, produced a fast-delivery report in which he said Westerman was "unable to clarify" to where, and why, he and the others in the vehicle were travelling.

He added that Westerman, of James Way, Donnington, Telford, claimed carrying the knuckle duster was "more an act of bravado than anything else".

Chair of the magistrates bench Dr Rachel Jones handed Westerman a 12 month community order. He will also pay £85 court costs and a £95 victim surcharge.