Beer said in Albury Local Court that he wanted his knife back because it was used for fishing.

But his request received little favour with magistrate Megan Greenwood.

“The custody of a knife carries a two-year jail sentence,” Ms Greenwood said.

Beer, who was representing himself, sighed loudly after hearing that information.

“I did not make that penalty, Parliament made it,” Ms Greenwood advised him.

Police prosecutor Sgt Tanya Eade-Smith said there had been a lot of publicity in recent years about a ban on carrying knives.

Beer, 33, of Thurgoona Street, Albury, pleaded guilty to charges of custody of a knife in a public place, refusing a direction to move on and goods in custody.

Ms Greenwood said the offences breached a bond without conviction imposed for an assault earlier this year.

Police received a call about 12.30am on July 27 about a man at the APCO service station in Mate Street yelling and swearing at staff.

Some were too scared to leave but the man had disappeared before police arrived.

Thirty minutes later there was a call about a bare-chested man abusing the console operator at the Caltex service station in David Street.

When police arrived five minutes later, Beer was standing at the night service window yelling and waving his hands.

Police approached him and he told them the conversation was being recorded and could cost their jobs.

Beer was warned about offensive language, was asked to leave and began talking to the operator in a foreign language.

He finally provided his name to police and they told him to collect his clothing and leave.

He gathered his shirt off the ground, put it on and began rambling.

Police arrested him after he failed to leave and found the knife in a back pocket of his jeans, along with identification for a woman in the Navy and another man’s concession card.

Beer claimed he found them about three weeks earlier, near a hotel.

Ms Greenwood put Beer on two separate bonds for 12 months and two years, with supervision ordered.

He was fined $330 and the knife was forfeited.