Thirteen Housing -v- Colin Pearson
Claim number: L00SR136
In the County Court at Sunderland
10 July 2024
Before:
District Judge Simpson
Between:
Thirteen Housing Group Limited
-v-
Colin Pearson
Sentencing remarks
Before District Judge Simpson sitting at the County Court at Newcastle Upon Tyne at Newcastle Crown & Magistrates Court, The Law Courts, The Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3LA on 10th July 2024
This is a case where an Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction (ASBI) was granted on an ex-parte basis to Thirteen Housing Group Limited on 17th April 2024 which was amended at a hearing on 25th April 2024 where the Defendant attended and was legally represented.
The terms of the ASBI are that the Defendant is forbidden until 4pm 17th April 2025 from:
- At any time engaging in conduct which is capable of causing nuisance or annoyance (including but not limited to harassing or threatening, intimidating or seeking to intimidate, using or threatening violence) to: Any tenant, resident, visitor, employee of Thirteen Housing Group or its associates or contractors or anyone else having a legitimate reason to be in the exclusion zone.
- At any time being within any of the properties or their communal areas located at Lewis Crescent or St Barnabas Way Sunderland, or being with the borders shown on the map attached to the order which includes the roads leading to these properties, green areas, car parks and footpaths leading to the development.
At the hearing on 25 April 2024, the court was invited to take no action on the alleged breach of the ex parte order which led to the Defendant appearing before South Tyneside Magistrates Court on 24 April 2024. Therefore, that alleged breach bears no relevance to my sentencing decision today.
The current breach before the court is that on 5 July 2024 the Defendant entered a block of flats on Lewis Crescent at 01:53 hours and knocked on numerous flats before entering one of them, placing him in breach of prohibition 2 of the ASBI. The Defendant was arrested at 19.20 on the 9 July 2024 in respect of the alleged breach. The Defendant has pleaded guilty to the breach today.
The Claimant has accepted there are no aggravating factors in respect of this breach. Therefore, looking at the level of culpability, in my view it falls within culpability C, which is the lower culpability for minor breaches. There is no intention, it seems, on the evidence provided to cause harm or distress and there is no harm or distress reasonably foreseeable from the breach.
As to the category of harm in this case, it is my view that the breach has caused little or no harm or distress and therefore falls within category 3. The starting point for sentence is therefore adjourned consideration and the category range is no order/ fine to two weeks imprisonment.
The Defendant has pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and as such the sentence I pass is adjourned consideration of the penalty for the contempt found proved for 3 months until 4pm on 10th October 2024 and may be restored for a decision if during that time the Defendant does not comply with the terms of the ASBI. If there are no further breaches within that period, then there will be no other sentence for this breach.