Damage done to the Honda Jazz Picture: CPS WESSEX A bus driver who drove into a hatchback walked from court with a conditional discharge and five points on his licence. Stagecoach driver Mark Newman was behind the wheel of his double-decker bus on Ermin Street, Stratton, on the morning of June 2 last year when he pulled in to let another bus pass him. Prosecutor Kate Prince told Swindon Magistrates’ Court the 55-year-old’s vehicle struck a parked Honda Jazz at low speed as he pulled in to avoid the other bus. The prang, which was witnessed by a member of the public, damaged the Honda’s front nearside wing, wheel arch and suspension.
A pair of alleged heroin conspirators have been charged with a forced labour offence. The two men, who are understood to be the first alleged County Lines dealers to be charged with the Modern Slavery Act offence in Swindon, are said to have press-ganged children into working for the “Flash” drugs line or drove them to Swindon. Jules Daley, 25, of Liverpool Road, Islington, is said by prosecutors to be the leader of the “Flash” line. Appearing before Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, no pleas were taken for a charge he conspired with others to supply heroin in Swindon between April and June 2018 and that he required a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
A BUILDER is accused of defrauding an elderly woman out of £21,000. Billy Scarrott, 32, is said to have been paid for building work that was not completed and also told his alleged victim he needed money to pay for his son’s funeral. Prosecutors claim he struck up a friendship with the older Swindon woman after advertising for home improvement work. He is accused of defrauding her out of £21,000 between December 1, 2019, and January 23, 2020. Appearing before Swindon Magistrates’ Court, Scarrott, of Woolavington, near Bridgewater, entered no plea to a single charge of fraud by false representation. He was bailed to appear before Swindon Crown Court on March 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
A BANNED driver has been jailed after he was caught behind the wheel – again. Purton man Lewis Page, 29, was found driving a 2006-plate blue Ford Transit van in Ludgershall on January 28. Prosecutor Ben Worthington told Swindon Magistrates’ Court that police had received another report on Thursday night and, as a result, were on the lookout for the Transit. Officers spotted it and followed the vehicle down the A338 from Tidworth. The van, inside which was found a small amount of cannabis, came to a stop in Central Street, Ludgershall, at around 11pm. The driver, Page, was already subject to a suspended sentence for driving whilst disqualified., That suspended sentence, imposed in 2019, was the fourth time he’d appeared in court for the offence, JPs were told. He was also on bail awaiting sentence at Reading Magistrates’ Court for assaulting emergency workers.