Hartlepool garage owner jailed after assaulting ex-partner and police

Brian McLoughlin, 30, from Hartlepool, bought the repair garage from a friend last year and he employed three workers.

But he was serving a suspended prison sentence when he assaulted his ex-partner in his local pub last August and then attacked three police officers, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The couple had argued before McLoughlin spat at her, said prosecutor Jenny Haigh.

After police arrived to arrest him, he stamped on one officer's foot three times, kicked another officer on the chin and hit a third officer on the knee.

Miss Haigh said that McLoughlin was in breach of a 12-month suspended jail sentence at Newcastle Crown Court for conspiracy with intent to defraud.

Stephen Constantine, defending, said that McLoughlin had a 24-hour tow truck facility at his garage and he was working night and day.

He added: "This is somebody who has turned his life around and he is willing to take on board and comply with anything that is offered to him

"He knows of course that if he is given a chance there won't be another."

Judge Howard Crowson told McLoughlin: "No doubt that the judge who gave you the suspended sentence told you that if you offended again during the period of suspension you would go to jail and that is what is going to happen today."

McLoughlin of Navigation Point, Hartlepool, was jailed for 12 months for breaching the suspended sentence and received an additional three months after he convicted of the assaults at a trial in May.