Blackpool: From the courts 26-01-18

Reagan Hilton, 19, taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, driving without insurance and without

Police became suspicious of a transit van being driven around Blackpool in the early hours of the morning.

There were three youngsters in the cab-one of them Reagan Hilton was driving.

Hilton admitted taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, driving without insurance and without a licence.

He was given a 12 month community order including 10 rehabilitation days and a 28-day curfew.

Magistrates heard that Hilton of Coronation Street, Blackpool had been given the van’s keys by one of the other youths.

He was on licence from prison but the authorities had decided not to recall Hilton to prison.

Tracey Holden, 34, failing to inform Fylde Council of a change in her circumstances

A woman illegally defrauded a council out of £4,573 in housing benefit.

Tracey Holden, 34, of Freckleton Court, Lytham admitted failing to inform Fylde Council of a change in her circumstances including the fact she had got married.

She was fined £345 and ordered to pay £34 victim’s surcharge and has so far paid £500 of the money back.

Sarah Perkins, prosecuting, said the claim was legitimate at the outset but Holden failed to tell the council her partner had moved in and then the couple got married.

Sue Mugford, defending, said Holden had suffered a close family bereavement and had simply forgotten to change her claim.

Jamie Farrell, 29, breaching work order

A man failed to do unpaid work which he had been ordered to do by a court.

Jamie Farrell, 29, of Abbot’s Walk, Fleetwood had been given 140 hours work as a punishment for committing criminal damage at his former girlfriend’s home.

Farrell admitted breaching the terms of the work order and failing to give any excuses for his absences.

Magistrates decided the order was unworkable and replaced it with a 12 week jail term suspended for as year.

Andreas Kourtellaris, 53, harassment

A man stalked a woman and threatened to carry out a serious sexual assault on her.

Andreas Kourtellaris made his vile threats after the woman said she wanted nothing more to do with him.

Kourtellaris, 53, of Kenilworth Gardens, South Shore, pleaded guilty to harassing the woman putting her in fear of violence and assaulting her between December 30 last year and January 5 this year.

Prosecutor, Pam Smith, asked for the case to be sent to crown court to be sentenced and added: “The Crown say he has bombarded her with messages, some threatening her life, after she said she wanted nothing more to do with him.

“There was also a sexual threat.”

Kourtellaris also assaulted the woman when he grabbed her wrist and squeezed it in a tussle over a mobile phone.”

Defence lawyer, Bash Khan, said his client had no previous convictions.

Kourtellaris was bailed to appear on February 21 for sentence at Preston Crown Court. He must not contact the victim or go within 50 metres of her address on Lytham Road, South Shore, as conditions of his bail.

Sarah Mearns, 37, driving with excess alcohol

A mother-of-two was two-and-a-half times over the alcohol limit when she drove onto the car park of a Hambleton pub.

Sarah Mearns took the wheel because it was an emergency situation as her boyfriend had been attacked, a court was told.

Mearns, 37, of Ashton Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol.

She was banned from the road for 17 months, fined £120 with £85 costs and ordered to pay £30 victims’ surcharge. Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said police went to the car park of The Shovels pub, Green Meadows Lane in the early hours of January 6.

Mearns had driven an Audi A4 from the main road onto the car park where a man had got out of the vehicle.

A breath test showed 84 micrograms of alcohol in her body - 35 is the limit.

David Charnley, defending, said his client had had no intention to drive, but there was an altercation in which her boyfriend was assaulted and she drove to protect him.

Jonathan Leadbetter, 30, driving with excess alcohol without insurance

A man more than twice the alcohol limit when he went to look for a chain he had lost which belonging to his late father.

Jonathan Leadbetter then became involved in an incident with police and had to be pepper-sprayed by an officer.

Leadbetter, 30, of Broadway, Cleveleys, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol without insurance.

He was banned from the road for 20 months, fined £120 with £85 costs and ordered to pay £30 victims’ surcharge.