A MAN who won a £25,000 payout from police after officers assaulted him for carrying a machete has been convicted of wielding a knife in Oxford’s Jobcentre.

Cecil Reid injured his shoulder in 2005 when he was confronted in Jasmine Close, Blackbird Leys, and restrained with CS spray. Thames Valley Police later paid him £25,000 compensation after a civil court action for assault.

But at Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday, the unemployed 60-year-old, formerly of Oxford Road, Cowley, was found guilty of possessing a bladed article in a public place after he walked into the Jobcentre in Worcester Street and demanded £500 in cash.

Reid, now of Chatham, Kent, went into the office on December 10, last year, and demanded that a heating allowance and winter fuel payment should be made to him in cash, before pulling a small knife from his jacket.

The court heard he was disarmed by a security guard.

Reid, who said he had forgotten the knife was in his jacket, was bailed to be sentenced on June 11.