Blackpool: From the courts 16-03-18

Julian Hall, 46, crimial damage

A man stamped on a woman neighbour’s BMW causing damage amounting to almost £2,000.

When questioned by police Julian Hall denied committing the crime and said he had not been out of the house.

Hall, 46, of Cheltenham Road, North Shore, pleaded guilty to causing damage.

He was given a 12 month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £520 towards compensation.

Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said a woman neighbour of Hall’s heard a man shouting outside her home on February 8 at 10.30pm, and looked out to see the defendant stamp on a side-panel of her BMW.

She had been quoted £1,889 by a garage to get the damage repaired.

Hall told police he had been drinking cider and he did not think he was responsible for the damage.

When being booked in at the police station Hall said: “So what - I hit out at a car. I don’t like people on that street.”

Mitch Sarangi, defending, said his client, who suffered from anxiety, was very drunk that evening and could not specifically remember leaving the house.

Hall, who did not know the neighbour whose car he damaged, had had a hip replacement and tended to use alcohol for pain relief.

Jonathan Brierley, 30, theft

Jonathan Brierley preyed on a fellow hospital patient who had just been told her illness was terminal.

The 30-year-old befriended the woman at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and on a daily basis would push her around the wards and to the outdoor smoking area.

When the woman’s cigarette supply ran out Brierley offered to go to the shops for her and she handed over her cash card.

But Brierley not only paid for the cigarettes.

He also bought himself some food and removed £100 cash from her account.

Brierley pleaded guilty to the theft which was discovered by the woman herself when she checked the balance online in her hospital room.

She asked for the money back and when he refused police were called.

Pam Smith, prosecuting, said: “He knew she was poorly and that she had been told her illness was terminal. He also knew the £100 was a lot to her.”

When interviewed by police Brierley told them: “I feel disgusted at myself. I needed the money to get electricity and food as I was leaving hospital.”

Steven Townley, defending, said that his client had been treated for an allergic reaction.

Sentencing him chairman of the magistrates Janet Lee told Brierley: “We do find there was a breach of trust. This was a vulnerable sick woman in a hospital.”

Brierley formerly of Fleetwood and now living in Oldham was given a 12 month community order with 20 days rehabilitation.

He must pay £140 costs.

Brierley said in court: “I want to write a letter of apology to the lady.”

Anthony Eddleston, 63, selling cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco without health warnings

A barber sold counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco to customers at his shop posing a risk to their health.

Anthony Eddleston told trading standard officers who raided his premises at St Annes that he decided to sell the goods despite “knowing they were a bit naughty.”

He was selling pirate cigarettes for £3 a packet and 80 percent of the goods the trading officers seized were counterfeit.

Eddleston, 63, of Revidge Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to three offences.

He admitted selling cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco without health warnings, supplying 28 packs of electronic cigarette refills without proper labelling and possessing 133 tobacco products with a false trademark.

He was fined £250 with £100 costs and ordered to pay £30 victims’ surcharge.

Presiding magistrate, Christine Greaves, told him: “You were selling products which were not controlled and that was a risk to the public.”

Nicholas McNamara, prosecuting for Lancashire County Council’s Trading Standards Department, said trading standard officers went to Tony’s Barbers, Wood Street, after a tip-off on June 16 last year.

They seized 161 counterfeit and duty-free packets of cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco plus 28 packs of electronic cigarette refills.

All were improperly labelled without text or picture health warnings and 80 percent of the goods taken away were counterfeit.

Officers also seized £1,830 in cash which was forfeited in an uncontested Proceeds of Crime application last year.

Eddleston, who had no previous convictions, told magistrates: “It happened without me really thinking about it. I did not realise the seriousness of it.

“It was just trade to me, a way of making extra money. I won’t be doing it again.”