Men defaced Chester shop window in “childish” act

Oct 14 2008 by Allison Dickinson, Chester Chronicle

TWO men who defaced a shop window in a “childish act” have been fined £143 each.

Darren Yardley, 27, and Arthur Rutter, 24, both of Boundary Lane, Saltney, appeared at Chester Magistrates’ Court charged with criminal damage.

Anne Rouse, prosecuting, said the men were spotted writing on the window of the Nationwide Building Society in Foregate Street, Chester, by plain clothes police officers.

“The window had been carved out and written on in permanent marker and would be expensive to put right,” she added.

Magistrate Margaret Dunbar had to halt proceedings several times to remind the pair to stop talking and to face the front.

Defence solicitors Pete Barnett and Howard Jones, acting for Yardley and Rutter, agreed that it was a childish act and said that both men had alcohol problems.

Proceedings were again interrupted as both men needed help filling out forms detailing their income, with Rutter telling the court he was dyslexic.

Both men were fined £35 plus £15 victim surcharge. In addition, they will each have to pay £43 prosecution costs and £50 compensation to Nationwide Building Society. These amounts will be added to fines they have already accumulated and will be deducted from their benefits.