The latest cases to be heard at Harrogate Magistrates Court between February 20 and February 25

The following were heard at North Yorkshire Magistrates’ Court on February 20:

Danny Smyth, 19, from Pannal, received a four-week jail sentence and given a 16-month motoring ban for drink-driving. Smyth, of Pannal Green, was stopped in Crosby Court Grange, Crosby, on Christmas Day 2022. A drink-drive test revealed he had 93mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal alcohol limit is 80mg. A jail sentence was imposed because Smyth was already serving a two-year jail sentence for an attempted knifepoint robbery in Harrogate and therefore the court couldn’t impose a fine or community order. However, he was made to pay a statutory surcharge of £154. There were no separate penalties for driving without insurance or a licence and breaching a community order which was imposed in November 2022 for being drunk and disorderly in Harrogate town centre and failing to surrender to court custody.

Muralidhar Reddy Yerra, 20, of Cawthorn Avenue, Harrogate, was fined £265 and had three points added to his licence for driving without a licence. He was driving a Skoda Fabia when the offence was detected on the A658 near Haggs Road, Follifoot, on May 7 last year. He was ordered to pay £90 costs and a £106 surcharge. There was no separate penalty for speeding on the same road on the same date.

The following were heard at North Yorkshire Magistrates’ Court on February 21:

Clair Murray, 44, of Grange Close, Dishforth, was fined £180 and had six points added to her licence for failing to identify the driver involved in an alleged speeding offence. It was proved in her absence that she failed to give police information relating to the driver of a Mini which was alleged to have been involved in a motoring offence. Along with the fine and points, Murray was ordered to pay a statutory surcharge of £72 and £90 prosecution costs. A further allegation of speeding on the A168 at Dishforth Airfield in May 2023 was withdrawn by the prosecution.

The following was heard at North Yorkshire Magistrates’ Court on February 25:

Jamie Lofthouse, 27, of Spa Lane, Harrogate, received a 16-week suspended jail sentence for breaching a community order and assaulting a police officer. He breached the order by missing two rehabilitation-activity appointments in October 2023 and February this year. The order was imposed in August last year for violence and threatening behaviour in Harrogate town centre on July 18, 2023. Lofthouse, who had a record for drink-fuelled violence and failing to comply with court orders, wasn’t jailed for the breach but re-sentenced for the original offences including assaulting a named man, threatening behaviour and attacking a police officer in Parliament Street. For those offences, he received a 12-week suspended prison sentence. He was given a further four-week suspended jail term, to run consecutively, for assaulting a police sergeant on Dragon Road, Harrogate, on February 3. The total 16-week prison sentence was suspended for 12 months.