These are the latest convictions and cases from Blackpool Magistrates' Court - Friday, May 10, 2019

Peter Cowell, 31, criminal damage

A fisherman smashed a window at a woman’s flat when he mistakenly thought a man he was looking for lived there.

Peter Cowell, 31, of Mount Street, Fleetwood, pleaded guilty to causing damage.

He was given a 12 months conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 compensation plus £20 victims’ surcharge.

Prosecutor, Alex Mann, said there was a disturbance in Milton Street, Fleetwood, on April 16, between some people who lived there.

An hour later, a woman who lived in a flat on the street heard shouting and someone banging on her side bedroom window.

She looked out to see Cowell, who she knew, and saw the window had been broken.

Patrick Nelligan, defending, said there had been an altercation between a female relative of Cowell’s and a man. At the time the woman had a baby with her.

Cowell went looking for the man but got the wrong window. He had not intended to smash it but mistakenly banged too hard.

Kirsty McDonald, failing to comply with a suspended sentence order

A 35-year-old woman appeared before a judge in a wheelchair after falling from a roof.

Kristy McDonald was about to be arrested by a court warrant officer for failing to comply with the terms of a suspended jail sentence.

She climbed onto the roof of her home on North Church Street,Fleetwood but slipped and fell 25 feet into a yard below.

District Judge Huw Edwards heard how McDonald had spent several months in hospital, including time in intensive care, with serious injuries and fractures to her back and legs.

Tragically her mother 56-year-old Christine McDonald hanged herself in her cell at Styal Prison the day after her daughter’s fall the judge was told.McDonald admitted the breach.

The judge told her: “I have to be satisfied that it would not be just to activate your suspended jail term. And from I have been told I think it would not be right to send you to prison. However,

I will increase the length of suspended sentence from one year to 18 months.”Patrick Nelligan, defending, said: “Previously Kirsty’s extended family did not want anything to do with her

because of her lifestyle.“However since she has come out of hospital drug free and a changed person an aunt has taken her in. She knows if she relapses she will not be able to stay with the aunt. She was badly injured and lost her mother in tragic circumstances.”

Christopher Hercus, 29, fraud

A benefit cheat illegally claimed thousands of pounds from the public purse when he failed to reveal his health had improved.

Christopher Hercus suffered from a bone wasting disease and was receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – previously known as Disabled Living Allowance.

But his physical condition improved to such an extent he got a job as a care worker at a Blackpool care home and did not alert the benefit authorities.

Hercus, 29, of Torsway Avenue, Layton, pleaded guilty to knowingly failing to notify a change in circumstances.

He was sentenced to a 12 months community order with up to 30 days rehabilitation to be supervised by the probation service, ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work for the community and told to pay £85 costs with £85 victims’ surcharge.

Prosecutor, Alex Mann, said Hercus illegally claimed £6,326 in PIP between June 2017 and August 2018 by failing to tell the Department of Work and Pensions his physical condition had improved.

Hercus’s claim for PIP in 2015 had been lawful at the start as he had severe limited mobility and physical needs.

The prosecutor said: “His condition obviously improved enough to allow him to get employment. He worked at the Annacliffe Care Home.

This employment was of such a nature he must have had quite an improvement in his physical capability.”

Steven Townley, defending, said his client had been born with a bone wasting disease and had medication to manage his pain.

Hercus was waiting for a hip replacement operation but he was bored at home.

He was managing his pain with the medication and got a job at the care home.

When it was time to renew his claim for benefits Hercus’s girlfriend filled in the forms.

She believed the situation was the same as he was still on pain medication and awaiting a hip operation.