Hartlepool man broke curfew order when he travelled to Belgium for £1,200 a week job

Alex Martin, 31, from Hartlepool, continued to wear the electronic tag for six months after he was sentenced for knife offences by Teesside’s top judge, the then Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC.

Martin, who is now a self-employed contractor earning £1,200 a week after tax, turned up at Teesside Crown Court where he admitted breaching the curfew conditions of an eight months suspended prison sentence imposed there on November 29 for two offences of having a bladed article in public.

His lawyer Stephen Constantine said that Martin would lose his job if he was not back in Belgium on Monday for work which could last for years.

Judge Deborah Sherwin said that his compliance with the curfew had been “woeful”.

Martin, of Turnbull Street, Hartlepool, was fined the maximum £2,500 with £125 prosecution costs, which he offered to pay at £500 a month.

Before the Belgium job offer he had been receiving Universal Credit of £240 a month.

He contacted his solicitor to see if he could find a way around the curfew, imposed 29 November 2018, but he was told that he would have to apply to the court, and he decided he could not afford it, said Mr Constantine.

He said that the company wanted an instant take-up of the vacancy, so Martin decided to accept it and go.

He continued to wear the tag which was aimed to keep him in his home at nights, although he realised it was not working any more.

Martin started as a labourer but he advanced himself by passing various courses until he was an integral part of the team and was described as “a pleasure to work with”.

Chris Morrison, prosecuting for the Probation Service, said that Martin had shown a “wilful and persistent failure” to comply with the curfew order.

He said that the security firm made three visits to Martin’s house before they gained entry to install the monitoring box, and he breached the curfew conditions within three days .

The judge said that he had brought a whole lot of trouble on his head by not complying with the court order in January last year.

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