Latest convictions from Blackpool's court - Monday, November 12, 2018

Mark Tew, 57, assault

A sales executive punched his wife’s new partner on the head.

Mark Tew, 57, admitted assault. Tew, of Hastings Road, Thornton, was fined £300 and must pay his victim £150 compensation.

Deputy District Judge Roger Lowe also ordered Tew to pay £ 115 court costs.

Sarah Perkins, prosecuting, said that Tew’s wife and her partner were at their home on Patterdale Avenue, Thornton, and were about to go out.

Tew appeared at the front door and shouted: “Where is he?”

He punched his victim to the side of the head and the man fell to the ground where , the prosecutor said, he was punched again.

Steven Duffy, defending, said: “This is my client’s first ever appearance in court.

He has been married for 20 years and has three children from that marriage.

“The couple are now going through divorce proceedings and he puts this assault down to a moment of madness.”

Nathan Bray, 20, assault

A 28-year-old Blackpool man has denied assaulting his partner.

Nathan Bray, of Egerton Road, North Shore, pleaded not guilty to two charges of assault in July this year.

Bray was bailed for trial date on February 8.

Reagan Hilton, 20, sending abusive messages

A young man sent a flurry of abusive Facebook messages to the 17-year-old girl expecting his child.

Reagan Hilton,20, of Coronation Street, Blackpool, sent dozens of messages to the teenager.

Sarah Perkins, prosecuting, said the couple were no longer together and that the messages started when Hilton believed she had found somebody else.

At one stage he told her he was going to overdose.

“These messages really frightened her.

“She told her social worker about them and they said she should contact the police which she did,” said the prosecutor.

Paul Robinson,defending, said: “Thankfully, the messages were all sent on one day. They were unpleasant and were sent at a time when she was vulnerable and pregnant.”

Deputy District Judge Lowe told Hilton: “This is a serious offence which caused your victim considerable distress.

“These messages were sent when you were under the influence of some substances.”

Hilton was given a community order with 25 days rehabilitation and 180 hour unpaid work for the community.

He must pay £170 costs and was made the subject of a one year restraining order forbidding him from contacting his victim.

James Lee, 26, forgery

A man set up a forgery racket in order to feed his own addiction to drugs.

Mobile hairdresser James Lee, 26, produced his own private and NHS prescriptions using a computer.

Then Lee, of Castlerigg Place, South Shore, would travel Lancashire and South Cumbria using a series of pharmacies to get sleeping tablets, anti -despressants and pain killers.

Pam Smith, prosecuting, said Lee used the name of a GP based in Blackpool to sign the hundreds of prescriptions he produced.

However, his racket was under investigation by the National Health Service who circulated all pharmacies in the North West with copies of the fakes and details about Lee.

Lee pleaded guilty to five offences under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act - one of them a sample offence covering a series of prescriptions Lee passed through a pharmacy in Garstang.

The others were passed over the counter in Thornton, Cleveleys and Blackburn. The judge halted proceedings and asked the Crown Prosecution Service to find out the value of drugs Lee has falsely got his hands on.

The hearing was adjourned for three weeks for police to visit the chemists’ shops Lee had targeted and make the calculations.

In his interview with police Lee denied being a drug dealer and said the pills were to feed his own addictions because of painful back and mental health issues.

He said he had used a friend’s computer to forge prescriptions.