Lee Geldart, 50, of Peabody Street, Darlington, admitted attempted theft when he appeared in custody at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 16th January 2025.
Attempted theft is an offence contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981. As is usually the case with attempt offences, it has the same maximum sentence as the substantive offence - namely 12 months' custody and/or an unlimited fine on summary conviction; 7 years' custody on conviction on indictment.
Magistrates heard that Geldart, who is a frequent flyer within the Criminal Justice System, attended King's Church Foodbank in Darlington on Friday, 10th January 2025.
Being good Christian people, the food bank volunteers provided him with a warm pair of gloves and deerstalker hat.
A short time later the volunteers noticed that the engine of the charity's parked van had been started and its lights illuminated. They ran across to challenge the driver - now identified as Geldart - and extract him from the vehicle. Geldart fled from the scene, dropping the van keys on the ground.
Police were called and arrested the 50-year-old career criminal a short distance away.
Magistrates were of the opinion that Geldart's offence was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate. They also elected to activate a suspended sentence hanging over his head.
Geldart was jailed for a total of 30 weeks (16 weeks for the attempted theft; 14 weeks consecutive for the activated suspended sentence).
Detective Inspector Claire Callaghan, from Darlington CID, said: "King's Church provide vital support to the most vulnerable in our community - to target them in this way is despicable.
"I hope Geldart uses his time in prison to reflect on his actions and their consequences.
"We'd like to thank the staff and volunteers at King’s Church for their quick-thinking actions at the scene, which ultimately stopped Geldart from being able to make off in the van."
The jury has failed to reach a verdict in the trial of two Just Stop Oil activists accused of criminal damage.
Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Jane Touil, 58, are accused of causing £8,000 worth of damage at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday, 30th July 2024. That valuation is considerably less than the initial £50,000 estimate.
The pair were on trial at Isleworth Crown Court, but HHJ Hannah Duncan discharged the jury on Thursday, 16th January 2025.
Just Stop Oil recorded the incident, which you can view below.
She appeared at Wirral Magistrates' Court for an exceptional hardship hearing on Wednesday, 15th January 2025.
Failing to provide information about the driver of a vehicle is an offence under section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. The maximum penalty on summary conviction is a fine at level 3 (£1,000). The offence also attracts 6 penalty points.
Flanagan, who lives in a village "10 minutes' drive from the nearest supermarket", told the court that she was "struggling financially" and would "really struggle without a car".
The mother-of-three said that she relies on her car to get her youngest, Charlie, to nursery each morning and it would be "very, very expensive" if she had to use a taxi for the journey. She told the court that she currently earns around £70,000 from her online presence.
Magistrates heard that Flanagan's £66,000 Audi Q7 was clocked speeding twice at different locations in Merseyside in June 2024. On the first occasion it was recorded travelling at 42 mph in a 30 mph limit; the second time at 51 mph in a 40 mph limit.
Flanagan, who previously starred as perhaps the wimpiest contestant ever on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, told the court that her partner, former professional footballer Robbie Talbot, had been behind the wheel of the speeding car. That being the case, she had passed him the section 172 notice to complete and return to Merseyside Police.
Mr Talbot said he had completed the paperwork, but the police, however, claimed never to have received it. In any event, it was Flanagan's responsibility, as registered keeper of the vehicle, to ensure the forms were correctly completed and returned.
Addressing the court, the 34-year-old actress said: "I very stupidly and naively thought it was acceptable for my boyfriend to reply on my behalf to explain to the police it was him that (was) driving, it wasn't me."
Drawing the application to a close, Patrick Boyers, for Flanagan, said: "She is a single mother of three children and she is doing her best.
"I would invite you to see round the haze of social media influencer branding. I would invite you to look at this case on the cold, hard facts of who is in front of you and I would invite you to find that exceptional hardship is a real possibility."
Magistrates were unconvinced.
Flanagan was fined £2,000 (£1,000 for each offence) and ordered to pay £800 surcharge and £110 towards prosecution costs.
Her licence was also endorsed with a further 12 penalty points, taking the total to 18 and making the actress liable for a totting disqualification.
She was disqualified from driving for a period of 6 months.
Michael (Mike) Amesbury, 55, of College Drive, Frodsham, Cheshire, admitted an offence of assault by beating when he appeared at Chester Magistrates' Court on Thursday, 16th January 2025.
District Judge Tan Ikram presided over the hearing.
Amesbury is the MP for the Runcorn and Helsby constituency, which includes the town of Frodsham where the assault took place during the early hours of Saturday, 26th October 2024. The former union man has been an MP since 2017.
Footage of the assault was circulated within a few hours. The initial video appeared to leave some doubt as to who the aggressor was, with Amesbury quickly releasing a statement saying that he "felt threatened" by the victim, Paul Fellows.
A second video emerged that helped to clarify Amesbury's poor recollection of events. That video, embedded below, showed Amesbury and Mr Fellows engaged in conversation. Mr Fellows was seemingly calm and had his hands in his pockets. Amesbury, on the other hand, was clearly animated, squaring up close to Mr Fellows and gesturing towards him.
As Mr Fellows briefly looked away, Amesbury took the opportunity to direct a punch towards his head. Mr Fellows, clearly taken by surprise at the situation, then fell to the ground where Amesbury punched him at least a further five times to the head. Onlookers were heard trying to break up the scuffle, but Amesbury continued punching Mr Fellows.
Alison Storey, prosecuting, told the court that the altercation arose due to a disagreement over the closure of a local bridge. Both Amesbury and Mr Fellows had been drinking earlier in the evening.
Mr Fellows had seen Amesbury and approached to ask him about the bridge, to which the MP replied it was "nothing to do with me".
She described how the MP punched Mr Fellows when his head was turned, which resulted in him falling to the ground.
Once Mr Fellows was on the ground, Amesbury said to him: "You won't threaten your MP again will you, you fucking soft lad?"
Mr Fellows sought medical attention after the assault, which left him with a lump to the head and headaches.
Amesbury initially told police he had been acting in self-defence, but has now changed his tune - no doubt because the evidence seems to disprove it.
Richard Derby, mitigating, described his client as a man "not of considerable means".
He described the incident as "regrettable and unfortunate" and said that Amesbury had "rightly or wrongly" misinterpreted what Mr Fellows had said.
Mr Derby told the court that the 55-year-old politician had suffered threats as a result of the incident.
DJ Ikram ordered the completion of a pre-sentence report, indicating that all sentencing options remained on the table. The judge noted that the offence seemed to be one of higher culpability, given the way Amesbury aimed repeated punches at Mr Fellows when he was down on the ground.
Amesbury was granted unconditional bail until his sentencing hearing on Monday, 24th February 2025.
Amesbury has now been expelled from the Labour party, having previously been suspended.
Despite his conviction, there is no guarantee Amesbury will lose his Parliamentary seat. That will only happen if he loses a recall petition, thereby triggering a by-election. A recall petition will only be held if he receives a custodial sentence, which is pretty unlikely. Even if a by-election was triggered, Amesbury could stand again if he wanted to.
There may well be pressure exerted on Amesbury to stand aside voluntarily. As that would mean foregoing £7,500 a month in Parliamentary salary and as many expenses as you can shake a stick at, whether he'll actually do that remains to be seen.
My guess, FWIW, is that Amesbury will want to cling on for as long as he can. Having spent the last eight years on the Westminster gravy train, it will be a real culture shock for him having to buy his own loaves of bread, pints of milk and newspapers - in other words, to return to life in the real world.
