Chippenham burglar on a curfew (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Chippenham burglar on a curfew

3:17pm Thursday 9th July 2009

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A burglar who was put on a curfew after telling a judge he couldn’t afford to travel to do community service has been jailed after giving a false address to the court.

The householder at the property on Charter Road told the authorities they didn’t know Paul Christian when they turned up to fit his tag.

And a judge ruled the 36-year-old had wholly failed to comply with the conditions of the order and jailed him.

Matthew Scott told a judge at Swindon crown court that Christian was put on a 40 week suspended sentence in October last year by a judge at Bristol crown court.

He was also told to do 120 hours of community service as well as comply with a supervision order.

In April he appeared before a judge saying he found it impossible to travel from his home in Malmesbury to Swindon to complete the unpaid work.

At that hearing a judge decided he did not have to do the community service instead imposing a three month curfew from 8pm to 7am.

But Mr Scott said when Group Four Security went to the new address Christian had given the court the occupants said they had never heard of him.

“Mr Christian gave what appears to be a false address for the curfew requirement so he has done none of it at all,” he said.

Christian, now of Woodlands Road, Chippenham, admitted being in breach of the terms of a suspended sentence.

Anne Ellery, defending, said her client had been staying in the Field View flats on Charter Road and had erroneously given the incorrect address.

He contacted Group Four and went to Chippenham magistrates’ court to ask why the tag had not been fitted, she said, only to be told it was too late.

She said that he had been in custody on remand for just over a month and before that was living with his girlfriend on Woodlands Road.

Jailing him Judge William Hart said “You have in my formal judgement wholly failed to comply with the conditions of this order.”

He said he would reduce the tern he will have to serve to reflect the effort he had made on the order jailing him for 28 weeks.

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