A man who brandished a hammer at his landlord has been jailed for 22 weeks.

Jonathan Richard Fletcher, of Derby Road, Douglas, admitted affray and also pleaded guilty to making nuisance calls to emergency services.

The 50-year-old said he had drunk four litres of cider the night before the incident, which occurred at 9am on August 6.

When he appeared in court previously, we reported how the affray incident occurred when police were called to Fletcher’s flat to investigate his ’999’ calls.

When officers arrived they were told that the landlord and a joiner had knocked on Fletcher’s door. He answered in his underpants, wearing a sleeping mask.

Fletcher asked if he was going to be evicted and the landlord told him he would be lodging papers with the court.

He was then said to have held a hammer above his head and angrily shouted: ’You best get an ambulance and the police.’

statement

Fletcher was arrested and handed in a statement saying he believed he was going to be evicted and that it was unlawful so he was simply making a complaint to the police.

He told police he had been drinking before committing the offences.

Between August 2 and 6, Fletcher made 15 calls to emergency services using the 999 number.

He made calls asking questions such as where the Isle of Man police trained.

In another call he demanded officers come and repair his bedroom window and door when they had previously broken in to arrest him.

He told them if they didn’t come he would call 999 again and also began shouting, insisting that he was the victim.

Defence advocate Paul Rodgers entered a basis of plea in which Fletcher said that he had been concerned he was going to be evicted.

He said he waved the hammer to get the two men to leave and accepted he made inappropriate calls.

Mr Rodgers said that Fletcher had mental health issues and was waiting to attend a course on dialectical behaviour therapy.

The court heard he has spent six weeks on remand which is the equivalent of a 12-week sentence.

drinking

Mr Rodgers said: ’Mr Fletcher had been drinking, as is a regular feature of his daily life. He didn’t have any sleep and faced his landlord early in the morning. He did contact the police and his first communication is not inappropriate, but it goes downhill thereafter.

’He makes the decision to confront his landlord with the hammer and sees him out to the door and that’s the end of it. But he accepts, facing someone waving a hammer, will have been frightening.’

Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes said the incident must have been frightening for the landlord and joiner.

Mrs Hughes said: ’You seem to fail to understand by using the 999 system in the way that you do you are preventing people who may have a genuine need from getting through.

’You may have a genuine 999 call one day and may not be able to get through because someone such as you is misusing the system.’