A YOUNG nuisance who has admitted breaching a court order forbidding him from attending his grandmother’s home, “over and over, again”, has now found himself behind bars.
Alfie Mavin was made subject of a suspended prison sentence in January for repeatedly turning up at the 74-year-old’s address, off Sherburn Road, Durham, in breach of a restraining order put in place by magistrates last July.
But, Durham Crown Court heard that within days he was further breaching the order, attending at her home on January 27, where he pleaded with her to give him money for socks.
He ran off on that occasion, but he returned and got in, in the early hours of January 30, by breaking a window.
This time he was demanding money for a taxi to enable him to go to hospital for an injury to a hand.
Ian West, prosecuting, said there was, “something of a tug of war” with his grandmother over her handbag, but Mavin left, again, empty-handed.
The court heard there was also a suggestion of him attending at the house on a further occasion, when it was thought he may have banged on windows and been on the roof.
When he was later arrested and interviewed by police he refused to answer questions.
Mr West said most of Mavin’s recent offending stems from breaches of the restraining order.
Appearing by video link, from HMP Durham, the 21-year-old defendant, of Heaviside Place, Gilesgate, Durham, previously admitted breaching the restraining order, on January 27 and 30, but he denied attempted robbery, relating to the struggle over the handbag.
Mr West said the prosecution could deal with that as part of the circumstances of the second breach, rather than as a separate offence, in its own right.
Lewis Kerr, for Mavin, told the court: “The defendant accepts the reality that these are breaches, over and over, again.
“It’s plainly persistent. Perhaps they are not the worst ever breaches, but ‘persistent’ is a fair description.
“She has offered him accommodation in the past and he has, effectively, thrown that back in her face and he’s been homeless now for some time.”
Mr Kerr said the period on remand has been the defendant’s first experience of custody, at a time when the lockdown regime still applies.
Judge James Adkin said: “It’s a 74-year-old woman who doesn’t want a young lad coming back banging at the house at different times.”
He told Mavin the way he behaves to his grandmother, “significantly impacts” his family.
Read more: County Durham woman victim of restraining order breaches
Imposing a 16-month prison sentence, including a month for the suspended sentence, he also extended the restraining order by a further four years.
Judge Adkin told Mavin should he “meet” him again, in court, for further breaches, the sentence would only, “go up and up.”
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