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.