A British man has been jailed for a year after threatening to spit at police and telling them he had the coronavirus.
Jason Gritton, 45, of Crystal Palace, South London, was found guilty of assaulting an emergency worker and affray on Tuesday after a trial at Croydon Crown Court.
"This sentence shows that threats and assaults on emergency workers will not be tolerated and the maximum possible sentence will be sought through the court process,” said chief inspector David Monk from the Metropolitan Police.
Police were looking for Gritton in relation to driving offences when they visited his home on April 30.
Initially he tried to hide from officers and then began waving a large knife while making threats to kill.
Gritton threw objects including a storage box at the officers and threatened to spit at them after claiming he had Covid-19.
Negotiators were called to the scene and later arrested Gritton, who was taken into custody.
The incident happened about a month after UK lockdown orders began.
At the time of Gritton’s arrest, police were trying to reduce travel to essential trips, on top of their usual duties.
The UK has had one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks, with more than 313,000 cases, and the most confirmed deaths in Europe at more than 41,000.
It is now trying to lift lockdown measures and reopen the economy.
But last week the government had to delay opening some sectors and increased the number of countries from which returning travellers require quarantine.
