Youth detention for Islander who breached court orders

Youth detention for Islander who breached court orders

Jose Filipe Nascimento Rocha, of Tower Road, was told by Magistrate Bridget Shaw that he seemed to be unwilling or unable to comply with non-custodial sentences. He was already banned from driving for three years and Mrs Shaw added another six months to that time.

The defendant has a long history of motoring offences and in October last year he narrowly escaped a prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to his fifth offence of driving while disqualified, the Magistrate’s Court heard.

However, on that occasion he was warned that it was his last chance and that if he came back to court for any motoring offence he would be sentenced to custody.

Centenier Philip Coffey told the Magistrate’s Court that at 10 am on 2 November a parking control officer noticed a blue Peugeot, registered in the name of the defendant, which was parked in First Tower car park with no insurance disc on display.

As a result, Rocha was brought to court and he admitted a charge of using the car in a car park without insurance.

By committing the offence, he was in breach of the community service order but was also in court due to non-compliance with the order as well.

When he was dealt with in October, the defendant was sentenced to 150 hours of community service. In December he was back before the court to explain why he was not turning up for community service work. On that occasion he was given an extra 15 hours of community service and again told it was his last chance.

The court heard that he failed to report for community service on 7 January and 28 January and that the Probation Department no longer considered him suitable for probation supervision.

The court was told that Rocha had done 20 hours of community service but that 130 were still
outstanding. In addition, there were £399 due in unpaid fines. Mrs Shaw fined him a further £500 for having the uninsured car in the car park.

Advocate Martin Elks, defending, said that Rocha wanted the court to know that he had not driven the car that was in the car park. He said that the reason his client had not turned up for community service was that the weather had been bad and he presumed that there would be no work going on.

The lawyer said that Rocha would also not pay a fine and so the court imposed default terms for a custodial sentence.

Mrs Shaw said: ‘The court only sends young people to custody as a last resort but it seems there is little chance of you completing this community service.

‘You are either unwilling or unable to comply with non-custodial sentences.’

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