Culcairn resident Samuel Thomas Calvert was using pills and acting erratically when he decided to blatantly steal a four pack of Jack Daniels and cola cans from the Lavington ALDI.

The 26-year-old, who is also known as Samuel Dobbs, simply walked into the Griffith Road supermarket on April 21, grabbed the grog, and walked through a checkout without paying.

A staff member confronted him but he was so abusive, he was was allowed the leave, with the employee fearing a physical assault.

Multiple callers rang Triple-0 as Calvert made his way to a nearby bus shelter.

He hurled abuse at several passersby and was acting aggressively.

When a bus arrived, he abused the driver and bent a windscreen wiper off the vehicle. 

Police arrived and quickly formed the view he was high on drugs, as he was sweating, rambling incoherently and struggling to communicate with them. 

He was arrested but his aggression didn’t subside.

Calvert kicked and punched the perspex glass inside a police van.

When a police member checked on his welfare at the Albury station two hours after the incident, Calvert spat in the officer’s face and on his neck and shirt.

The officer had been conducting a check and offering food when Calvert spat through a door. 

He has previously been sent to jail three times for assault matters, including an attack on police, and for resisting arrest.

He was on a good behaviour bond at the time of his latest offences.

Magistrate Tony Murray late last week described the 26-year-old as acting in a “very bizarre fashion”.

“Spitting on anyone in my view is just such a cowardly, despicable act,” he said.

Most people would prefer to be hit rather than spat on, Mr Murray said.

Calvert had only been released from jail a short time before the incident.

Mr Murray said a prison term was necessary to deter assaults on police. 

“They should just not have to put up with this,” he said. 

He noted Calvert, who grew up in the area and wants to return to Corowa or Holbrook after his release, had “substantial ongoing problems". 

He has worked as a landscaper in Queensland and undertaken factory work. 

He has a son in Wagga and a young child in Queensland and was trying to scrape together money to travel to the Sunshine State to visit them at the time of the offence. 

He was fined $200 and must serve at least five months behind bars, backdated to his arrest in April. ​

He received a maximum sentence of 14 months.