Lincolnshire MPs back plans to scrap BBC licence fee

A Grantham man who failed to comply with the requirements of a Sex Offenders order by not disclosing a new bank account to the police was today (Tuesday) given a suspended jail sentence.

Mark Foulston, 29, of Commercial Road, was given a suspended prison sentence of 12 months custody suspended for two years at Lincoln Crown Court in January 2020 for breaching the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

However, in February 2021 Foulston opened a new NatWest bank account and received a debit card but failed to give the details to the police or probation service, which he was obliged to do within three days.

Lincoln Crown Court heard the failure only came to light in September 2021 when Foulston confided in a support worker on the same day he appeared before Judge Simon Hirst for a second breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Thomas Welshman, prosecuting, said Foulston also received a replacement bank card in July 2021 which he failed to tell the authorities about.

Foulston was voluntarily interviewed by the police after making the admission to his support worker, and admitted there were three occasions on which he could have informed the authorities about his new bank account.

He pleaded guilty to an offence of failing to comply with a notification requirement.

Mr Welshman said Foulston’s failure to comply with the terms of his order had occurred over several months.

Hal Ewing, mitigating, said Foulston had been suffering mental health problems during 2021 and had sought help from both the Crisis Team and a clairvoyant.

Mr Ewing told the court Foulston found the assistance of the clairvoyant helpful and told the authorities he left his last address because it had “bad spirits.”

The court heard Foulston had an IQ of under 70 and was also dyslexic.

“He thinks in a different way to most people,” Mr Ewing explained. “He knew he had to tell the police, but he didn’t.”

Mr Ewing added Foulston was “desperate to avoid jail,” and now had support from his father who was present in court.

“He hopes soon to get new accommodation, start a college course and learn to drive.”

Passing sentence Judge Simon Hirst told Foulston he did not accept that he did not know what he was doing when he failed to notify the authorities.

“On the last occasion we met I told you to bring a bag for prison,” Judge Hirst warned Foulston.

“I can’t imagine I will give you another chance.”

Foulston was sentenced to ten months imprisonment suspended for two years, a two year community order and must complete 100 hours unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay £340 costs.

Thousands of metres of underground cable were stolen in the village of Harby near Lincoln, leaving residents without the use of their landline telephones and, in several cases, broadband too.

Residents in Broadholme have also been impacted and Openreach engineers are working hard to resolve the issue, with repairs “likely to run into next week”.

More than 4,000 metres of underground telecommunication cable was stolen from an area stretching from the A156 junction near to Broadholme village towards Harby in the early hours of May 22.

It is believed the offenders accessed the cable via manhole covers and dragged out hundreds of metres of copper core cable, destroying fibre optic cable in the process. This caused damage to the network and disruption to phone and broadband services for around 200 local homes and businesses.

This isn’t the first incident this month. A Harby resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Lincolnite he believes 2km of underground cable was also stolen two weeks ago and then “whilst it was being relaid last week another 1500m went missing”.

He said: “As you can imaging residents of the village are running out of patience. It is affecting the whole village.

“The biggest concern is that my wife is disabled and we often need medical assistance. Considering the poor mobile phone signal in the village, getting in touch with emergency services in the event of an issue could be life threateningly difficult.”

A spokesperson for Openreach said: “We’re really disappointed that villagers in Harby are having to bear the brunt of criminal behaviour and theft from our network.

“More than 4,000 metres of underground cable was taken earlier this week and damage to the network is causing disruption to phone and broadband services for around 200 local homes and businesses.

“Engineers are already on site and have been working overnight to restore phone and broadband to those impacted as quickly as possible. We’ve also brought in extra resource from as far away as the West Midlands.

“However, this is a huge job and despite our best efforts, repairs are very likely to run into next week due to the extent of the damage.

“We urge people to report any suspicious activity that they spot in and around our infrastructure to the police.”

Lincolnshire Police said the incident refers to the theft of cable from the Harby area of around 4,000 metres of underground cable and was reported to them at around 6am on May 22.

Police said: “Our investigation continues, no-one has been arrested at this stage.”