TWO racist thugs have been locked up for 20 months for threatening an Asian shopkeeper before smashing up his store.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Parmjit Singh Sahota had run the Costcutter shop in Lowswater Way, Towerhill, Kirkby, for 17 years and had known Thomas Parry for the last 15 years.

But when Parry, 34, and his accomplice Rodney Hancock, 37, began to cause problems in the shop, he barred them.

When he asked the pair to leave on June 10, they became abusive.

Prosecutor Ben Morris told how they threatened to burn down his shop and warned they knew where he lived.

Parry, who has 175 previous convictions, shouted insults including “p*** b*****” and told him to: “Go back to your own country. You have no right to live here or work here.”

Two days later the men returned, swigging lager and shouting insults. They left, but turned up again at 7.15pm and pushed their way into the shop.

Mr Morris said: “What followed was a nasty and unpleasant confrontation which resulted in Mr Sahota being the subject of violence and threats of violence.”

Parry, of St Paul’s Close, Kirkby, again shouted racial insults, while Hancock smashed up the shop.

Both men admitted racially aggravated harassment, while Hancock, of Hawksmoor Road, Kirkby, also pleaded guilty to racially aggravated criminal damage.