A man who breached his bail by not appearing at his front door when requested by police has been given a warning by magistrates.
Christopher Tomkinson, aged 33, of Tynwald Road, Willaston, failed to answer the door of his address when officers checked on him at 10.11pm on Thursday, May 14.
Under his bail conditions, Tomkinson is under a curfew at the address from 10pm to 6am.
When officers knocked, his father answered the door and said that he was not in the house and that he hadn’t been there for ’some time’.
-(2).jpeg?width=209&height=140&crop=209:145,smart&quality=75)
Prosecutor Rebecca Cubbon said that when officers returned at midnight, no one answered despite them knocking so loudly that a neighbour inquired as to what was happening.
At 3.50am on Friday, May 15, Tomkinson rang the police himself and said he was at the address. Officers arrived at Tynwald Road and arrested him for a bail breach at 4am, he told them he had been sleeping in a shed following a family argument.
Tomkinson told the court it was a summer house, not a shed.
Defence advocate Ian Kermode told the court that Tomkinson was always on the premises during the hours of his curfew but that, due to being asleep and out of the house, he had breached his conditions by not appearing on the doorstep.
Mr Kermode said his client had been in the shed/summer house following a ’tiff’ with his father. But added that it was Tomkinson who rang the police when he woke up and realised the situation he had put himself in.
He offered Tomkinson’s apologies to the court, adding to the ones he expressed when at the police station.
Magistrate Carol Maddrell told him: ’If you sleep in the shed or summer house again, someone in the house should know where you are.’
Tomkinson was bailed with the same conditions as previously set down to the sum of £500. He was originally bailed on March 3 after pleading not guilty to affray and possessing an offensive weapon, namely a knife.
Christopher Tomkinson, aged 33, of Tynwald Road, Willaston, failed to answer the door of his address when officers checked on him at 10.11pm on Thursday, May 14.