A VIOLENT thug who previously robbed a man with a machete has appeared in court again for waving an axe above his head when high on drugs.

Alexander Jones was branded a 'dangerous' offender and locked up for eight years after robbing an unsuspecting partygoer trying to catch a taxi.

He forced his victim to withdraw £200 from his account during the terrifying ordeal in Bournemouth.

In August this year, Jones claimed to be a marine and waved an axe above his head while high on drugs, a court heard.

He was confronted after a resident who had been having a cigarette in their car heard a loud bang on Landguard Road, Southampton.

The man climbed out of his vehicle to see what had happened and was confronted by the sight of Jones swinging the huge weapon around.

The brave bystander asked him what he was doing, at which point the 26-year-old told him he was a marine - before slumping down behind a car as the man called police.

Defending Jones, Neil Hinton suggested his client had been "comatose" that evening by someone giving him a drug usually used to render others "insensible".

When, officers arrived, they found Jones sat on the pavement with the axe nearby.

After being threatened with a Taser and a police dog, he was arrested but taken to hospital due to his condition.

When questioned he remained silent but later pleaded guilty to threatening a person with a blade in a public place.

Jones, of Atherley Road, Southampton, was previously convicted when he was 18 for the robbery and false imprisonment incident in 2015.

This related to an incident in Boscombe when he trapped a man in his car and threatened him with a machete before taking and damaging his phone.

The victim was stabbed in the shoulder and had £200 stolen from his account after he was forced to disclose his pin.

Jones was also convicted of firing a gun when he was just 12 after an incident in Houston, Texas in the United States.

Judge Nicholas Rowland said he is somebody with a "bad record" and remarked that this was a "very serious offence".

He said the offence was "so serious" that "only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified".

Jones was jailed for 12 months at his sentencing at Southampton Crown Court.