• A PART-TIME carpenter who over-claimed more than £33,000 in benefits was spared jail... after a judge accepted he did not set out to defraud tax-payers.

Norman Nye, 69, of Claremont Road, Basildon, was overpaid housing benefit, council tax benefit and pension credit between 2009 and 2015.

He admitted two charges under the Fraud Act, but Basildon Crown Court heard he tried to alert the council on six occasions when he found work.

However, Nye stopped trying to tell officers because his work was so ad hoc that it was difficult to warn them in time.

Judge Ian Graham said benefit fraud is “taken seriously” because it hits the “public purse” as well as causing problems for genuine claimants.
He handed Nye an eight month prison sentence for each count, to run concurrently, but suspended them for 18 months.

Nye was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

For more information on how to deal with those suspected of benefit fraud call 01702 347007.

  • A MAN who attacked a woman while she was driving a car with a young child as a passenger has been spared jail.

John Cowlin, 46, carried out the assault in Rayleigh on December 17. He also destroyed household property, worth £1,000, and damaged a van worth £580 during the sustained incident.

Cowlin, formerly of Blackmore Walk, Rayleigh, now of Main Road, Chelmsford, admitted assault and two counts of criminal damage at Southend Magistrates’ Court.

He was handed an 18 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.
Cowlin was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,080 in compensation, £85 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.

  • A WICKFORD man has been banned from a pub in the town after he admitted assaulting a number of staff and customers.

Ty Madden, of Stevenson Way, appeared at Basildon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday charged with two counts of assault.

The court heard that he assaulted Sophie Battersby-Hales and Ella Roberts as he was being ejected from the Downham Arms pub, in London Road, Wickford, on November 19 last year.

The 26-year-old admitted both the charges.

Sentencing, magistrates decided to prevent him from entering the pub for the next 18 months, as well as making sure that he completes a thinking skills programme for 19 days.

He was further ordered to complete a rehabilitation activity requirement for ten days, as well as paying £100 compensation to the two women he assaulted.

The magistrates also ordered him to pay an £85 victim surcharge and £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service, which he must pay before January 25.

His guilty plea to the charges was also taken into account during the sentencing.

  • A MAN who threatened a witness in an assault case by making a gun gesture with his hand has been jailed.

Nigel Drummond, 45, of High Road, Rayleigh, assaulted a person on October 9, 2015, after pursuing them in a car and threatening to shoot and stab them.

He was convicted on October 24 last year, but denied making the threat on March 18.

Drummond was found guilty of intending to pervert the course of justice at Basildon Magistrates’ Court and jailed for 16 weeks.

He was jailed for ten weeks for the assault, to run consecutively, making a total of 26 weeks.

A restraining order was granted for the victim and he was ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge.

  • A MAN was jailed for eight weeks after admitting a domestic assault.

Scott Breakwell, 26, of Wimborne Road, Southend, assaulted the woman at a home in Southend on Sunday, January 1.

Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court jailed him - and also made a 12 month restraining order to protect the victim.

Breakwell was also told to pay a victim surcharge which tallied up to £115.

  • A MAN has appeared in court charged with causing serious injury through his dangerous driving.

David Morgan, 27, of Chancellor Road, Southend, is charged with crashing his Ford Fiesta in Lower Road, Hullbridge, on September 5 last year.

As a consequence a woman was seriously injured in the crash.
Morgan is also charged with driving without insurance - and failing to stop for police officers.

He has now appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court where he was subsequently bailed until a hearing at Basildon Crown Court on Thursday, February 9.

  • A MONEY launderer and his accomplice who funnelled money through a sham company for organised criminals across London and Essex have been jailed.

Shazad Malik, 43, of Cairo Road, Walthamstow, used Sky Drinks Ltd to launder nearly £6m illion over 12 months. He was jailed for five-and-a-half years after admitting the offence.

Asher Frank, 40, of Harlow Gardens, Romford, was found guilty of acting as a courier and was jailed for three years.

Frank was arrested in Barking in July 2012 when he tried to escape from police only to get stuck in a traffic jam.