Committal for contempt of court: Moat Homes -v- Adrian Platt

CivilCommittal for Contempt of Court

Claim number: K01CM208

In the County Court at Chelmsford Justice Centre

11 February 2025

Before:

HHJ Duddridge

Between:

Moat Homes Limited

-v-

Adrian Platt

AMENDED UNDER THE SLIP RULE BY ORDER OF HHJ DUDDRIDGE DATED 11 FEBRUARY 2025

Order

UPON hearing Counsel for the Clamant by CVP and the Defendant in person.
AND UPON the Defendant having been arrested on 26 January 2025 for an alleged breach of the Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction made by HHJ Livesley on 26 March 2024 [“the Injunction”], the alleged breach being that he entered Parker Court on 26 January 2025 in breach of paragraph 1 of the Injunction

AND UPON the Defendant having admitted at a hearing on 3 February 2025 that he was in Parker Court on 26 January 2025 in breach of paragraph 1 of the Injunction

AND UPON the Court having adjourned sentencing to give the Defendant a further opportunity to obtain legal representation but informing the parties that the hearing will proceed even if the Defendant is not represented, unless there is evidence that the Defendant has taken reasonable steps to obtain representation and a good reason why he is not represented despite those reasonable steps (for example, a solicitor informing the Court that they are willing to represent the Defendant but require further time to arrange public funding).

AND UPON the Defendant not being represented and the Court refusing a further adjournment

AND FOR THE REASONS set out in the Judgment delivered orally at the hearing and annexed to this Order

AND UPON it appearing that, by an administrative error, the Court has drawn and sealed an earlier draft of this Order and Judgment annexed instead of this (final) version

IT IS ORDERED THAT:

  1. Pursuant to CPR 40.12 the earlier sealed version of the Order and Judgment annexed shall be deleted in full and replaced with this Order which shall stand as the Order of and Judgment delivered by the Court.
  2. The Defendant be committed to prison for a period of 5 months in respect of his breach of the anti-social behaviour injunction on 26 January 2025.
  3. The suspended committal order of 4 months imprisonment dated 12 August 2024 be activated.
  4. The custodial penalties referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 above shall be served consecutively.
  5. The Defendant do pay the Claimant’s costs on the indemnity basis summarily assessed in the sum of £4504.15.
  6. The Defendant has the right to appeal against this Order without requiring permission. Any appeal should be brought in the Court of Appeal. The Appellant’s Notice should be lodged at the Court of Appeal by not later than 4pm on 5 March 2025.
  7. A copy of this Order and the Judgment annexed to it will be published on the website of the Judiciary of England and Wales.

JUDGMENT

  1. Mr Platt, on 26 March 2024 DDJ Livesley made an anti-social behaviour injunction order against you (“the Injunction”). Paragraph 1 of the Injunction prohibited you from remaining on, entering or attempting to enter Parker Court, Waterside, Bradwell on Sea, CM0 1QU.
  2. At a hearing on 4 July 2024, which you failed to attend, I made the following findings:
    a. The Injunction was personally served on you on 12 April 2024;
    b. In breach of the Injunction you were present in Parker Court on the following dates: 13 April 2024, 15 April 2024, 16 April 2024, 25 May 2024.
  3. At a hearing on 12 August 2024, which you also failed to attend, I found that you had been served with notice of that hearing. In your absence I ordered that you should be committed to prison for a period of 4 months, suspended until 4pm on 25 March 2026 on condition that you complied with the Injunction.
  4. On 16 December 2024 you were arrested at Parker Court. At a hearing on 14 January 2025, you admitted breaching the Injunction by entering Parker Court on 16 December 2024. You told me that you would not return to the address again. I determined that the appropriate penalty for your contempt was a period of 56 days immediate custody. As you had spent 28 days in custody on remand, I ordered that you be released that day.
  5. On that occasion, I did not activate the 4 month suspended custodial penalty ordered on 12 August 2024 but I warned you that, if you breached the injunction again, that penalty would be activated in addition to the penalty for the further breach. I also warned you that the penalty for any further breach was likely to be significant.
  6. On Sunday 26 January 2025 you were arrested in Parker Court. You were produced before me on 27 January 2025 when I adjourned until 3 February 2025 to give you an opportunity to obtain legal representation and remanded you in custody.
  7. At the hearing on 3 February 2025 you were not represented. To your credit, you admitted the alleged breach of the Injunction. I adjourned sentencing to give you a further opportunity to obtain legal representation on the question of penalty for the breach. You have not obtained legal representation but, for reasons I gave earlier, I am satisfied that you have had a reasonable opportunity to do so and I declined to adjourn this hearing again. I now decide that penalty.
  8. I have considered the guidance given by the Court of Appeal in Christopher Lovett v Wigan Borough Council [2022] EWCA Civ 1631. The objectives in sentencing for contempt of court are, in the following order: (i) ensuring future compliance with the order; (ii) punishment; and (iii) rehabilitation. I have also considered the range of possible orders set out in paragraph 40 of the Court of Appeal’s judgment and the CJC’s guidelines reproduced at paragraph 54 of that judgment.
  9. Those guidelines require me to set the penalty for your contempt by assessing the relative culpability of the breach on a scale A to C and the relative harm it caused on a scale 1 to 3, before considering aggravating factors that may increase the penalty and mitigating factors that may reduce it.
  10. The matters I consider most relevant to culpability are:
    a. You first breached the Injunction on 13 April 2024, the day after it was served upon you.
    b. You have repeatedly breached the Injunction despite having been arrested, produced to the Court and remanded on bail to attend future hearings.
    c. There is no evidence that you breached the Injunction between 25 May 2024 and 16 December 2024 showing that you were able to comply with it for a period of nearly six months.
    d. On the other hand, your breach of the injunction on 26 January 2025 occurred less than 2 weeks after the hearing on 14 January 2025, when you were released after having been sentenced for your breach of the injunction on 16 December 2025. You breached the injunction again despite having assured me on 14 January 2025 that you would not return to the property and despite my warnings that the consequences of a further breach were likely to be severe.
    e. You told me at the hearing on 3 February 2025 that you went to your father’s house on 26 January because you were homeless and had nowhere else to go. Whilst I will take that into account as part of your general mitigation it does not excuse your breaching the order.
  11. I consider that this latest breach falls within Culpability A given the persistence and frequency of your breaches of the Injunction and the repeated contempt you have shown for the authority of the Court.
  12. The matters most relevant to harm are:
    a. The purpose of the Injunction was in part to protect your father, who lives at Parker Court, has dementia and is vulnerable. It was also to protect other residents of Parker Court, which is a retirement complex for residents aged 55 and over. The youngest resident is 61, the oldest is 87.
    b. The evidence relied on in support of the application for an injunction showed that your behaviour had already caused them fear and alarm. Allegations included brandishing a knife, threats to kill the neighbours, setting fires and threats of violence to neighbours and your father as well as other anti-social behaviour.
    c. Therefore, although there is no evidence that you directly caused harm to any other person on 26 January 2025, your very presence at Parker Court is likely to cause fear and alarm to the residents there and undermines the purpose of the injunction.
  13. I consider that these circumstances fall within Harm Category 2.
  14. The starting point for Culpability A, Harm Category 2 is a custodial sentence of 3 months. The range is adjourned consideration to 6 months.
  15. Aggravating features in this case include that this is the sixth breach of the injunction since it was made and, most significantly, that your breached it on 26 January 2025 despite having appeared before me as recently as 14 January 2025, when I sentenced you for your earlier breach, you told me that you would not return to the Property and I warned you of the likely consequences of a further breach.
  16. You told me at hearings on 27 January and 3 February, that you will not go back to the property. You said the same thing today. But you said the same thing on 14 January. I gave you the benefit of the doubt and took you at face value on that occasion hoping that the period of time you had spent in custody would have brought home to you the need to comply with the injunction. I am unable to give you the same benefit of the doubt today given the further breach of the injunction since then.
  17. In mitigation I bear in mind the following:

a. You admitted the breach on 3 February 2025 thus saving the need for the arresting officer or other witnesses to attend Court to give evidence.
b. There was evidence last year that you had experienced mental health difficulties, although it appears you were nonetheless able to understand the Injunction and its consequences and there is no evidence of any such mental health difficulties today.
c. You stated that your reason for going to the address was that you were homeless and had nowhere else to go. As I said earlier, that does not excuse your breaching the order but I bear in mind your circumstances as part of your general mitigation.

  1. In view of your repeated breaches of the Injunction and the fact that the latest breach happened so soon after you were last before me, I have no faith that you will comply with the injunction if I impose anything other than a custodial penalty. Given the persistence of your breaches in the face of the suspended custodial order I made on 12 August 2024, the custodial penalty I imposed on 14 January 2025 and the warnings I gave you on that date, I consider that this latest breach falls at the top end of the range of penalties indicated by the guidelines even taking into account those mitigating factors.
  2. In all the circumstances I consider that the appropriate penalty for the breach on 26 January 2025 is a period of 6 months imprisonment.
  3. I have considered whether to suspend that penalty. In my judgment, it would not be appropriate to do so given the history of breaches I have described and the likelihood that you will continue to breach the injunction if you are at large.
  4. I shall give you credit for the 15 days you have been remanded in custody since you were first produced before me on 27 January 2025. The effect of s.258 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, is that those 15 days are equivalent to a custodial penalty of 1 month. I shall deduct that from the penalty of 6 months, reducing it to 5 months.
  5. In addition I shall activate the suspended sentence I imposed on 12 August 2024, having made clear to you on 14 January 2025 that I would do so if there was a further breach of the Order.
  6. The two custodial penalties are for separate, unrelated breaches of the injunction and shall therefore be served consecutively. Adding the two penalties together gives a total of 9 months in custody. That is a substantial penalty in total, but I am satisfied that it is proportionate having regard to the persistent breaches of the injunction and that you have continued to breach the injunction despite previous arrests and penalties for contempt of court.
  7. You the right to appeal to the Court of Appeal without requiring permission. Any Appellant’s Notice must be lodged at the Court of Appeal by 4pm on 5 March 2025.
  8. This judgment will be published on the website of the Judiciary of England and Wales.

Dated 11 February 2025