A round-up of news from the courts

During 2010 and 2011, June Clifford menaced the Coquetdale community and was hauled before the courts on numerous occasions for her unruly behaviour.

Her antics were so bad that police vowed to take a zero-tolerance approach after she repeatedly harassed her neighbours and members of the public while drunk.

Nicknamed Scary Mary by locals, Clifford, a then-resident of Rothbury’s Addycombe Gardens, was branded a nuisance to the neighbourhood and became the first person in the rural areas of the Alnwick Policing Sector to be given a Criminal Anti-Social Behaviour Order (CrASBO).

Seven years on and Clifford has been at it again. At the end of last month, she was given a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, for causing havoc in Ashington.

The 62-year-old, now living at Princess Louise Road, Blyth, has repeatedly breached the terms of a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO), made by magistrates at Bedlington in April last year.

Her latest escapades happened over the weekend of June 30 and July 1, first being drunk in a public place and then acting in an anti-social manner by causing people alarm and distress. She originally denied the charges, but changed her pleas to guilty.

Sentencing her, magistrates said that the offences were her eighth and ninth breach of the CBO and she had a history of disobeying court orders. She was also made to pay £265 in costs.

○ A Seahouses man has been fined for assaulting a police officer.

Bartlomiej Strychalski, 21, of Main Street, pleaded guilty to three offences, which all happened on August 28.

He admitted to being drunk and disorderly in Morrison’s, Alnwick, assaulting PC Belshaw and another person who was assisting a police support officer.

He was ordered to pay £615, including a £300 fine and £200 in compensation.

○ A North Broomhill man has been fined for failing to give information to police.

Darren James Flanighan, 51, from Stone Row, admitted not providing details about the identification of a driver who was alleged to have been guilty of an offence.

He was fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 in costs and a £30 surcharge to fund victim services. His driving record was endorsed with six penalty points.

○ An Otterburn woman has been sentenced after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention.

Bobby Shauna Rooke, 28, of Brierley Gardens, admitted the offence, on the B6320 at Bellingham in February.

She was ordered to pay £195, including an £80 fine, and had her licence endorsed with five penalty points.