STAFF at Roddons Housing Association were threatened when tenant Shace Whittlesey insisted that a �3,000 sofa damaged by mould in his home would need specialist cleaning.

He had been involved in a 16-month dispute with the Association, and was aggressive and confrontational when he attended their March office.

Whittlesey told one supervisor that if the hand dyed covers were not satisfactorily cleaned, then “he would regret it.”

He told the supervisor: “You don’t want to make me angry, Roddons don’t know what I am like.”

The next day Whittlesey reappeared at the Hostmoor office and demanded the return of the hand dyed covers that came from a sofa his mother had bought him as a house warming gift.

On discovering that the member of staff he dealt with the previous day was missing, Whittlesey said: “I would punch him if he was here.” He also threatened: “I have a baseball bat in my boot.”

Before 30-year-old Whittlesey had moved into the property, he had claimed to be living in a car.

Appearing before Deputy District Judge Jones at Wisbech courthouse, Whittlesey, of Springfield Road, Parson Drove, admitted two charges of using threatening behaviour. He was given a two year conditional discharge and ordered to pay �85 costs.

Mitigating, Bal Dhaliwal said Whittlesey had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Whittlesey and his partner had moved into freshly painted accommodation in May of last year, and within weeks mould had appeared in the property.

Staff from Roddons had inspected the damaged sofa and offered to clean the covers, but Whittlesey believed they were not suitable for dry cleaning.

“He accepts he was extremely frustrated,” she said. “The sofa had sentimental value, the material had come from abroad and was a gift from his mother when he first moved in. He felt the material would fade and could not be replaced.”