Message of ‘love’ lands man in court for harassment by breach restraining order

A man who breached a restraining order twice was lucky to escape jail when he appeared before magistrates.Tomasz Lapinski appeared before Lynn magistrates on Thursday, where he admitted two charges of harassment by breaching a restraining order.Nicola Lamb, prosecuting, said 46-year-old Lapinski, of London Road, Lynn, was subject to a restraining order banning him from having contact with his ex-partner or her daughter.

The order was imposed by Northampton Magistrates’ Court on February 20 2023, when Lapinski was also made subject to a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for 24 months, and a community order.However, on February 13 this year – just days before the order was due to expire, he decided to send Valentine’s cards to both his ex and the girl.The ex-partner had contacted the police when the cards arrived in the post. Alison Muir, mitigating, said Lapinski had meant no harm by sending the cards. She said they had been sent as letters of love.She also explained that Lapinski had expected the cards to arrive after the order had expired, but she conceded the breach occurred on the date he sent them, not when they were expected to arrive. She described it as a minor breach and said otherwise he had abided by the order and urged the court not to activate the suspended prison sentence.Ms Muir said Lapinski had been making great progress through the community order working with probation.Lewis Spicer, probation officer, said Lapinski’s caseworker had given a glowing report of his progress and described his compliance as “excellent”. Mr Spicer said it was very unusual to see the word “excellent” used.Ms Muir asked magistrates to deal with Lapinski by way of a financial penalty given that he was doing so excellently and that the breach had been only a few days away from the end of the restraining order.“I ask the court grant him one chance,” she said, so he can continue working with probation as he has been doing “so excellently”.The court heard the ex-partner had asked for a new restraining order to be made and the magistrates agreed, banning Lapinski from going either to her home address or her place of work in Northampton, and to have no contact with either the ex-partner or her daughter by any means including postal. Lapinski told magistrates he had moved to Lynn to help him stay away from them.Lapinski was fined £80 for the breach of the order, £80 for breaching the suspended prison sentence, and ordered to pay £50 costs and £32 victim surcharge.