French shopper who threw Camembert at Waitrose staff
The 67-year-old lobbed chunks of cheese at staff and then rammed the manager with a trolley when she tried to stop him making his escape
A FRENCHMAN who pelted supermarket staff with wedges of Camembert has escaped punishment.
Suspected shoplifter Bernard Conche, 67, started the cheesy assault in a branch of Waitrose in Chelsea when security guards spotted him loading up his trolley.
He then used his trolley as a battering ram to hit duty manager Kimberly Taynor, 31, as he tried to evade capture.
Conche failed to attend court but was convicted in his absence of two counts of assault by beating and one count of assaulting an officer in the course of his duty on March 16.
He had already been banned from the upmarket shop in Kings Road, Chelsea, before he was spotted loading up his trolley with French cheese on November 20 last year.
The Frenchman eventually turned up for sentence after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Sporting his trademark wellington boots, Conch mumbled incoherently in French as he waited in the dock at Westminster Magistrates' Court.
District Judge Grant Snow handed fined him £100 on each count, but deemed the fines as paid because Conche has mental health problems.
He ordered the pensioner to stay in touch with his local mental health services, and he is still barred from the King’s Road store.
Prosecutor Ian Beeby said: "The defendant was asked to leave the store by Miss Taynor and he had thrown some cheese at her which the crown say amounts to assault by beating.
"One of Miss Taynor's colleagues, a security guard, has intervened to assist her and he has been assaulted by beating.
"Police were called and one of the officers was kicked in the chest as he was being placed in the police van."
The court heard Miss Taynor was hurt when Conche lifted his trolley into the air and slammed it down on her right ankle.
Security guard Shah Nawaz, 33, was kicked in the shin as Conche started spinning his trolley around in front of shocked shoppers.
Three members of staff eventually managed to wrangle Conche into an office but the Frenchman kicked PC Jonathon Stanley in the chest when cops tried to put him in the police van.
Despite not attending his trial, Conche, of Keswick Road, Putney, southwest London, still insists that he was attacked by staff.