Wigan's week in court

Wigan justices have sentenced a man who admitted stealing 10 pairs of spectacles from an optician.

Paul West, 48, of Tamar Grove, Leigh, pleaded guilty to taking the glasses.

He was fined £120 and must pay £85 towards prosecution costs and £48 to fund victim services.

A judge and jury will hear the case of a Wigan man accused of threatening a woman with a large kitchen knife.

Carl Gannon, 46, of Conway Road, Ashton, pleaded not guilty to threatening Victoria Davies at a house in Ashton on July 8.

Wigan magistrates felt the allegation was so serious that the trial should be held before a jury at Bolton Crown Court.

Gannon will appear there on August 8 and was remanded on conditional bail until then.

A man who admitted stealing a bicycle worth £590 has been given a community order.

Gary Tarbuck, 33, of The Old Courthouse in Leigh, must do 20 days of rehabilitation activity and pay £590 in compensation.

A court has ordered a man who admitted attacking three people to have treatment for alcohol dependency.

Wigan magistrates imposed a community order for 28-year-old Ross Belshaw, of East Mount, Orrell, with treatment for six months as one of the requirements.

Belshaw pleaded guilty to the assault by beating of Phillip Heaton and Brendan Turton on March 11.

He admitted assaulting Deborah Belshaw on the same day and causing damage worth £200 to a television and door belonging to her.

Belshaw's community order also states he will have an electronically-monitored curfew from 7pm to 7am for three months and must attend up to 30 rehabilitation activity days. He was told to pay £85 towards prosecution costs and £95 to help fund victim services.

A man must pay £800 in compensation after admitting handling five pairs of pillar caps stolen from various owners in Wigan.

Jamie Bennett, 36, of Scafell Grove, Platt Bridge, pleaded guilty to dishonestly assisting in the retention, removal or disposal of the items, which were worth £2,500, knowing or believing they were stolen.

Pillar caps are often made of stone and seen on top of walls and gates.

Wigan magistrates imposed a community order with a two-month curfew from 7pm to 5am and told him to pay £800 in compensation.

Two parents have been found not guilty of failing to send their daughter to school. Katie Entwistle, 37, and Keiron Monks, 43, both of The Avenue, Billinge, had been accused of not sending their daughter to Up Holland High School regularly between September and December last year.

The case had been brought by Lancashire County Council as their daughter is of compulsory school age and was registered at the school.

They had denied the charge and the case has now been dismissed by Wigan justices.

A Wigan woman has been fined for being drunk in charge of a young child.

Jayne Lord, 37, of Preston Road, Standish, appeared before borough justices to admit to not being in a fit state while supervising a youngster under the age of seven in Greenwood Road on May 19.

She was ordered to pay a total of £199 in the shape of a fine, court costs and a victim services surcharge.

A Wigan carer has admitted to fleecing three vulnerable people he was supposedly looking after out of more than £22,000 by bank card fraud.

Michael Peet, 43, of Eccleston Street, Swinley, stood before borough justices to enter guilty pleas of making numerous fraudulent withdrawals using debit cards belonging to his named victims: two men and a woman.

From one man he stole a total of £7,860, from the other he took £5,918 and from the woman he syphoned off £8,560.

The court heard the crimes took place between May 25 and August 31 last year.

Peet was released on unconditional bail until August 10 when he will be sentenced by a Bolton Crown Court judge.

A man with "an appalling record of dishonesty" has been jailed for 18 weeks after further shop thefts.

Malcolm Ellison, 58, of Keats Avenue, Worsley Mesnes, twice targeted Golborne's Asda store to steal salmon and meat with a total value of around £150 on June 19 and 22, Wigan magistrates heard.

This breached a suspended sentence given for a whole raft of previous shoplifting offences only a month earlier.

He must also pay £154 to victim services.

A convicted Wigan sex offender who admitted to breaching the terms of his sentence has been given a community punishment.

Aidan Allen, 47, of Nook Lane, Golborne, stood before justices to plead guilty to flouting a sexual harm prevention order by failing to comply with annual notification requirements.

This put him in breach of the 2003 Sexual Offences Act, Wigan and Leigh magistrates heard.

He was ordered to complete six days of rehabilitation activities and 40 hours of unpaid work.

There is also £180 to pay to victim services and the courts.

A teenager is awaiting his fate after admitting to launching an attack.

Keegan Belshaw, 19, of Montrose Avenue, Worsley Hall, stood before borough justices to admit to assaulting another young man by beating on January 17.

He was remanded on bail until sentencing takes place on August 4.

A man was hit with a hefty financial penalty after admitting to possessing cocaine.

Christopher Birchall, 30, of Crossdale Road, Hindley, stood before Wigan justices to plead guilty to having the class A drug in Leigh on May 22.

A fine, combined with costs and a victim services surcharge mean he has to fork out £569.

A motorist has admitted to being more than three times over the drink-drive limit.

Warren McKenzie, 64, of Pilgrims Way, Standish, stood before Wigan magistrates to admit to giving a reading of 109 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath when the legal limit is 35.

The hearing was told that he was stopped and breathalysed by police on Leyland Mill Lane on May 27.

He also admitted to not being insured on that occasion.

The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report until August 17 before which he is on unconditional bail but is the subject of an interim driving ban.

A man has denied launching a racist assault and attacking two officers of the law.

Raymond Rigby, 34, of Inglewhite, Skelmersdale, stood before Wigan justices to enter not guilty pleas to the racially aggravated assault by beating of Mehdi Zaki and the assaults of PC Georgina Newcombe and PCSO Karl Melling during the course of their duties on June 6 in Wigan.

Rigby faces an alternative charge of assaulting Mr Zaki without there being a racially aggravating factor.

The case was adjourned for a trial at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on August 4 before which the defendant is on conditional bail.

A Wigan teenager has been accused of carrying out a mugging.

Paul Lafrenz, 19, of Norfolk Close, Hindley, appeared before borough justices to face the single charge of robbing Harold Winstanley of £170 on March 29.

He has yet to enter a plea and because the charge is indictable only, the case was immediately sent to Bolton Crown Court where Lafrenz will make his first appearance before a judge on August 22.

Before that time he is remanded in custody.

A Wigan motorist caught drink-driving has been spared a road ban because she was taking her partner to hospital because of a medical emergency.

Suzanne Thomas, 42, of Wrenbury Close, Pemberton, appeared before borough justices to plead guilty to giving a reading of 79 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath when a police patrol approached her at the wheel of a Ford Kuga and tested her on March 11.

Under normal circumstances being found more than twice the drink-drive limit would land a motorist with an automatic ban, but the bench took the mitigating conditions into account and instead put nine penalty points on her licence.

The chair of the magistrates told her: "A responsible, reasonable and sober person present at the scene but who themselves could not drive would not have advised the defendant to wait for an ambulance, taxi or to elicit help from others, they would have advised her to drive."

But she had still committed an offence, hence the points.

The defendant was also ordered to pay a fine, court costs and a victim services surcharge totalling £349.

A borough man who denies raiding a house while armed with machetes and hammers in April 2019 will only now face trial next spring.

Nathan Morris, 29, of Glebe Street in Leigh, appeared before a Bolton Crown Court judge charged with burgling an address in Sandy Lane, Hindley, to steal televisions worth £600 and a £4,000 Ford Focus, while armed with the weapons on April 11 three years ago.

Denying the charge he was due to stand trial this month, but it has now been adjourned until May 22 next year.

A Wigan man who denies assaulting a woman and possessing a sledgehammer as an offensive weapon will be tried next year.

Lucca Curri, 48, of The Paddock, Ashton, had previously stood before borough justices to plead not guilty to the weapon charge and to causing Kerry Whittle actual bodily harm on November 18 last year.

Making his first appearance before a Bolton Crown Court judge, he was told his trial, lasting three to four days, would begin on May 9 2023.

Nicola Jensen, 39, of the same address, has also denied causing Ms Whittle ABH and will face trial on the same day as Curri.

Both are on bail in the meantime.

A Wigan teenager has been ordered to pay £500 compensation to the man whose scooter he stole.

Filip Czornyj, 19, of Coniston Avenue, Ince, stood before borough magistrates to plead guilty to snatching Karol Maruszczak's Honda twowheeler on May 2.

He was also ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

However Czornyj denies breaching a criminal behaviour order against him by being in a group of more than three people in a public place on May 13.

That case was adjourned for a trial at the same court on October 3.

A young Wigan man who was seen armed with a craft knife on Wigan's main shopping street has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Callum Hugill, 23, of Cheltenham Avenue, Ince, appeared before borough magistrates to plead guilty to having the dangerous weapon in Standishgate on March 15.

He also admitted to causing damage to a door belonging to Katherine Ainscough on April 18: an offence which breached a conditional discharge handed down by justices for breaking down another door in Leigh in January.

For the knife crime he was given a six-month custodial sentence but it was suspended for 18 months.

He must also complete 21 days of rehabilitation activities and 60 hours of unpaid work. A fine, compensation, court costs and a victim services surcharge mean he also has to fork out £363.

A Wigan 33-year-old has admitted breaking into a home's garden shed.

Dean Bootle, of Wesley Street, Pemberton, stood before borough justices to plead guilty to entering the outbuilding on Preston Road, Standish, as a trespasser with intent to steal from it on July 9.

The case was adjourned until August 17 for the preparation of pre-sentence reports, before which Bootle has been released on conditional bail.

A shoplifter who threatened a man with a large screw and was verbally abusive will be sentenced for his crimes next month.

Wayne McMahon, 38, of Kitt Green Road, Marsh Green, had appeared before Wigan justices to deny stealing a bike lock from Halfords and an Easter egg from Aldi on April 5 and also to using threatening behaviour, menacing Scott Highton and wielding the sharpened object on the same day.

But he was found guilty after a trial and was also convicted of failing to answer bail for a July 18 court hearing.

Sentencing was adjourned for the preparation of reports before which McMahon is on bail, conditional that he does not enter Aldi or Halfords.

A man who attacked two police officers, hurled threats and abuse, and resisted arrest is facing 200 hours of unpaid work.

Nathan Twigg, 26, of Earl Street, Swinley, stood before borough justices to admit to assaulting PCs Mason and Evans during the course of their duties, resisting PC Mason, as well as uttering threats, all on December 30.

As well as the unpaid work, he must complete 15 days of rehabilitation activities and pay compensation, a victim services discharge and court costs amounting to £280.

A 34-year-old woman has admitted to attacking another woman at a Wigan pub.

Lucy Mullock of Palm Grove, Worsley Hall, appeared before borough justices to plead guilty to causing Natalie Walsh actual bodily harm on July 24 last year at the Springfield Hotel. Sentencing was adjourned until October 24.

Children were left frightened and distressed after a drunken Wigan man wielded a blade in the street, justices heard.

Craig Simmons, 51, of Bulteel Street, Pemberton, appeared before Wigan magistrates to admit to being armed with a kitchen knife near his home on May 15.

He was given a six-month prison sentence which was suspended for 18 months.

Magistrates told him they were imposing a custodial sentence because the knife was brandished and seen by neighbours as well as children, causing distress and harm, and the offence was committed under influence of alcohol.

But the bench also conceded there was a good prospect of rehabilitation.

Simmons was ordered to complete a course for people with a drink problem and 10 days of rehabilitation activities.

He must also pay £213 to victim services and the courts.