Blackpool: From the courts 07-04-17

Demi Mawdesley, 19, drunk and disorderly

A Blackpool teenager spat at a police officer who was trying to arrest her, magistrates heard.

Demi Mawdesley, 19, of Chapel Street had been drinking with family and friends following the death of her mother.

In the early hours of the morning police were called to a Queen Street bar to investigate the incident.

They were approached by Mawdesley who claimed she had been hit.

Adrian Hollamby, prosecuting, said that Mawdesley was drunk and incoherent.

She suddenly started to run off and two officers followed her. They handcuffed her and were arresting her for being drunk and disorderlywhen she spat a female officer part of which hit the PC’s face.

Mawdesley was taken to the cells where she apologised for what she had done.Robert Castle, defending, said: “What she did was reckless.

“She had just suffered the loss of her mother and when the officers arrested her the handcuffs put her in some pain.”

Mawdesley was given a 12 month conditional discharge after admitting being drunk and disorderly.She was fined £80 for assaulting the officer and ordered to pay £50 compensation.

She must also pay £70 costs.

Here is Wednesday’s round-up of cases at Blackpool Magistrates Court 06-04-17

Jack Dawson, 37, illegal begging

A man pleaded poverty as he begged on the street.

But when 37-year-old Jack Dawson was arrested under the Vagrancy Act an investigation revealed he lived in a flat at the Tower View Hotel in Bethesda Road, Blackpool, and was getting £840-a-month in State benefits.

Dawson failed to attend magistrates court to answer two offences of illegal begging.

He was seen in the town’s main shopping centre with his black dog and a pot of money in front of him.

When he was arrested he told a police community officer and a council officer: “You won’t want to make an enemy out of me.”

Lynda Bennett, prosecuting, said an investigation revealed Dawson collected housing and the other benefits each month.

“He has been receiving help but he continues to beg and pressurise the public into giving him money,” she said.

Dawson was found guilty in his absence and was fined £80 and made the subject of a two year criminal behaviour order which forbids him from begging in a delineated area of the resort.

Craig Rogers, 42, theft

A man who kept out of trouble for 10 years returned to crime because his family was in need.

Craig Rogers, who was once a prolific offender, stole from a shop because the mother of his two children said she had no nappies or electricity.

Rogers, 42, of Hatfield Road, Fleetwood, pleaded guilty to theft.

He was given a six months conditional discharge and ordered to pay £25 compensation with £85 costs plus £20 victims’ surcharge by magistrates.

Prosecutor, Peter Bardsley, said Rogers was caught on CCTV on March 5 at 2.30pm, stealing seven packets of steak valued at £25 from Iceland, Lord Street, Fleetwood.

When interviewed by police, Rogers, who had 60 previous offences on his record, said he had sold the meat to a woman for £18 and used the money to buy nappies food and electricity.

Mitch Sarangi, defending, said Rogers had been a prolific offender but in 2007 he sorted out his drug problem and stopped committing crime.

Last month his partner, whom he did not live with, contacted him and said she had run out of money and could not afford vital things for their two children.

Rogers had gone out stealing to get cash and it had been an isolated incident.

Kiranprasad Rajendraprasad, 30, sexual assault

A visitor accused of sexually molesting a 17-year-old girl while they were swimming in the Lazy River feature at Blackpool’s Sandcastle water park has made his first appearance at court.

Kiranprasad Rajendraprasad, 30, of Sunbridge Road, Bradford, pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the teenager on March 5 this year.He was bailed to June 15 for trial by magistrates. Rajendraprasad must not enter Lancashire except to attend court or visit his lawyers as a condition of his bail.

Zoe Izard, 26, fraud

A woman accused of being involved in benefit fraud offences has been put on the wanted list.

Zoe Izard, 26, of Slaidburn Walk, Grange Park, faces two offences of dishonestly causing a man to fail to notify a change in circumstances to claim housing benefit.

A warrant without bail was issued by magistrates for her arrest after she failed to attend court.

David Torr, 25, criminal damage

A Blackpool man smashed the rear window of his mother’s car.David Torr, 25, of Conway Avenue, Normoss, had been drinking heavily when he chased the car down the road as his mother drove to the shops.

He took a missile out of his trouser pocket and threw it at the car, smashing the rear window glass worth £100.

Police were called to the incident after Torr ran off. During the hunt for Torr he broke a neighbour’s fence panel, costing £35.

Torr who admitted two charges of criminal damage did not remember either of the incidents when he was interviewed at the police station.

His lawyer Brett Chappell told magistrates: “He is a binge drinker and that causes him to commit offences.”

Magistrates asked for probation reports on Torr.

Daniel Howarth, 37, assault

A man twice pushed a teenage boy causing him an eye injury on each occasion.

Daniel Howarth first pushed the 13-year-old boy into a cupboard and then onto a sofa at the home he then shared with the teenager’s mother.

The mother told her son that if anyone asked what had happened to him he should say he had got the injuries during boxing, magistrates heard.

Howarth, 37, of Sunnyhurst Avenue, South Shore, pleaded guilty to two offences of assault.

He was sentenced to a 12 months community order with up to 15 days rehabilitation to be supervised by the probation service, ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work for the community and told to pay the teenager £100 compensation with £85 costs plus £85 victims’ surcharge.Prosecutor, Peter Bardsley, said between October 9 and 13 2016 Howarth was in the kitchen

when he pushed the teenager who hit a cupboard and injured one eye.

Howarth later pushed the boy onto a sofa and he injured the other eye.