Fleetwood: From the courts 15-06-16

A man was aggressive to paramedics and had to be restrained by two members of the public.
Blackpool Magistrates CourtBlackpool Magistrates Court
Blackpool Magistrates Court

James Whitmore, 42, of North Church Street, Fleetwood, pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly.

He was given a 12 months conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20 victims’ surcharge by Blackpool magistrates.

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Prosecutor, Martine Connah, said Whitmore was aggressive to paramedics who had been called when he collapsed on May 25 at 5.30pm.

He ran in and out of traffic and when police got there he was being held by two members of the public. He carried on being aggressive at the police station and had to be forcibly restrained in his cell.

Steven Townley, defending, said his client had an addiction to alcohol and was going into a residential rehabilitation unit.

• A man with a bad record for burglary who stole £600 in cash when he broke into a shop has been jailed.

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Simon Benson was caught when crime scene investigators discovered his blood on a cupboard at the premises.

Benson, 26, of Radcliffe Road, Fleetwood, pleaded guilty to burgling the E Smo-King shop.

He was sentenced to 16 weeks imprisonment and ordered to pay £300 compensation to the shop owner by Blackpool magistrates.

Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said a main panel in the door of the shop on Fleetwood’s Lord Street was smashed between March 30 and 31. Blood found at the scene matched Benson’s.

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He had three previous convictions for burglary and at the time of the offence was on a 12 weeks prison sentence suspended for two years for an offence of burglary.

Patrick Nelligan, defending, said his client suffered from a split personality disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity syndrome for which he took medication.

Benson did not usually drink because of his medication, but he was easily influenced and that night was persuaded to have a drink of lager. He then found himself in the shop.

• A mother whose son was knocked overby a fleeing shoplifter has said the store should take some of the blame.

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The mum said the ASDA store at Fleetwood should shoulder some responsibility because they had put some expensive items at the front of the store.

Her opinion was read out to a court during the hearing of Stuart Knights, 40, of Milton Street, Fleetwood, who pleaded guilty to assaulting the two-year-old boy.

Knights was sentenced to a 12 weeks curfew from 7pm to 6am and ordered to pay £50 compensation for the toddler’s injuries by Blackpool magistrates.

The court was told Knight had previously been sentenced to a curfew for theft of the television.

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Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said the mum and her son were walking towards the trolley park at ASDA on November 15 at 4pm when Knights came running out of the store with a boxed television under his arm, followed by a security guard chasing after him.

She described Knights as throwing the box which hit her toddler knocking him forward onto the concrete,

The mum stated that her son was “heartbroken”. She said: “He asked me to kiss his hands better. They were red where he had hit the concrete. He was crying for ten minutes and the staff gave him a toy to play with.

“I am not happy to come to do shopping and my son being assaulted by a shoplifter. I feels Asda need to take some responsibility with moving such expensive items to the front of the store.”

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Patrick Nelligan, defending, said Knights had been offered a caution by the police for the assault offence on the condition he paid £30 compensation but he did not have the money.

Knights had pleaded guilty to the assault on the basis he had been reckless. He was running with the television under his arm when it fell, slid along the ground and hit the toddler.

Knights had had a drug problem but was now on a rehabilitation course.

• A former licensee sent his ex girlfriend more than 500 messages after they split up.

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Paul Bowker was concerned about how his son was being cared for and he believed his former partner was drinking too much at times a court was told.

Bowker, a 38-year-old construction worker, of Nutter Road, Cleveleys, pleaded guilty to harassment between March 12 and May 18 this year.

He was sentenced to a six months community order with up to 15 days rehabilitation to be supervised by the probation service, fined £100 with £85 costs plus £85 victims’ surcharge and put on a 12 months restraining order not to contact his ex except via a third party for child contact or through the mediation service by Blackpool magistrates.

Presiding magistrate Denise Jones, told him: “There were mitigating factors in the fact that you were concerned about the welfare of your young child.”

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Prosecutor, Chrissie Hunt, said the couple had been in a relationship for three-and-a-half years but it broke down about a year ago. After they split up Bowker sent his ex in excess of 500 messages and in March there was a confrontation between them.

Bowker was then given a harassment warning by police. But after this Bowker sent his ex 86 messages in the form of texts, voice messages and emails.

On May 7 he referred to one of his ex’s male friends as an OAP threatening he would go and look for him and harm him.

Kathryn Jamieson-Sinclair, defending, said her client had had concerns about his ex’s fidelity before their relationship ended. Afterwards he had worries about her drinking and his child being left without competent care.

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Mrs Jamieson-Sinclair said: “These were the primary reasons he continued to contact the complainant. The majority of the messages were concerning his child and whether he was being properly cared for.”

Bowker had been taking anti-depressants prescribed after the break-up. Two weeks before the offence he had felt better and stopped taking them. He had now started taking the medication again.

• The skipper of a 60 ton trawler ended up in the dock was twice the drink sailing limit when he sailed onto a sand bank called Tiger’sTail.

Michael Maceachern, 45, was at the wheel of whelk trawler the Corontine when it became firmly stuck on the sandbank at the mouth of the River Wyre estuary at Fleetwood.

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Maceachern, of Sherwood Grove,Huntington,York admitted being drunk in charge of the craft under Marine Law.

Chrissie Hunt prosecuting at Blackpool Magistrates’ Court said that the RNLI and Coastguard rescue craft were launched and five crewmen rescued from the stricken Corontine.

“This was a some expense,” said the prosecutor,” and there will also be the cost of having the trawler removed in the future.”

She said that at first the skipper refused to quit the vessel and had to be persuaded to do so.When he was take back into port he was breath tested and had 61 microgrammes of alcohol in his blood- nearly twice the limit.

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The Tiger’s Tail is a notorious spit of sand which guards the estuary and can only be crossed at high tide.

It was his second conviction for the same offence magistrate heard. The first was in 2012.

Steven Townley ,defending told how the trawlers had unloaded its catch of whelks when th skipper decided to go drinking in the port in the sunshine.

He went back to his craft and fell asleep and was woken by the crew when they realised the tide was rising and they needed to sail.

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The lawyer said: “It is a difficult channel to sail but he felt fine.However, he did miss one of the lights meant to aid skippers out to sea.

“He says he drank about five pints and felt quite capable of skippering the trawler.”

He said his client worked as self employed taking a percentage of the worth of his catch.

Magistrates sent him for sentence at Preston Crown Court and asked for probation reports to be prepared on him.

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• A husband and wife have been punished for running what is described as an “above-ground landfill site” near a watercourse.

John and Elaine Park, of Park Hall Farm, Fleetwood Road, Pilling, were found guilty of two charges under the Environmental Act relating to waste at their skip business.

Mr Park held an environmental permit for the site but the day-to-day running was by Mrs Park, the court heard.

Some of the waste they deal with is subject to strict environmental controls, requires permits and must be stored and treated inside a building.

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Park, 53, and his wife, 44, run the Frank Smith skip hire business based on Bracewell Avenue, Poulton, but had no waste management plan and had stored vast quantities of waste material out of doors when not allowed to do so.

Prosecuting for the Environment Agency, Kevin Slack said: “The site comprises a waste transfer station run by the defendants, where general household, commercial and industrial mixed waste was taken in.

“Greenacres Recycling Centre had one large building that benefited from an impermeable surface and a sealed drainage system. The outside parts of the site included concreted areas with areas of unmade ground. There was no sealed drainage system serving areas outside the building.

“As a consequence nowhere on site outside the main site building could be used for the storage of mixed waste.

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“Mixed non-inert waste, over time, decomposes and generates leachate which can be highly-contaminating to ground surfaces and may ultimately find its way into watercourses. To the back of the site a watercourse known as Main Dyke runs close to the perimeter of the facility.

“Any leachate generated by mixed waste decomposing on the site would be at risk of entering this watercourse if stored other than in compliance with the conditions.”

He added: “The defendants caused very significant quantities of mixed household and commercial type waste to be deposited and stored on outside areas.

“The site effectively became an above-ground waste landfill site, in clear breach of the permit.

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“The nature and manner of storage of the waste on site presents a risk of environmental harm, a serious fire risk and had a very significant adverse amenity impact on the surrounding area and those employed on neighbouring sites.”

Defending, Joe Hart described the couple’s financial problems to the court and the couple’s repeated calls to the EA to say they were trying to sort out issues. He said they had been blighted by equipment failures, unexpected expenses and an arson attack.

He added: “It wasn’t immediately apparent to the defendants how bad it was getting because it was shielded by trees.”

Judge Christopher Cornwall, sentenced Mr Park to four months’ jail suspended for 18 months with 250 hours’ unpaid work. Mrs Park was given a community order with 150 hours’ unpaid work.