A man damaged a door, shattered glass and smashed his partner’s phone after an argument about his drinking.
Samuel Bone, 38, of Beechan Drive in Fairstead, appeared at Lynn’s Magistrates’ Court on Thursday charged with three counts of damage to property valued under £5,000.
Crown prosecutor Jessica Pratt-Vivian said the offences, all of which Bone pleaded guilty to, were part of a “domestic incident” on August 8 last year.
Bone was at his partner’s address when they reportedly had an argument about his drinking, leading to him becoming “agitated”.
Ms Pratt-Vivian said Bone “got in the face” of his partner, who told him to calm down. When he did not, she phoned police.
Bone then proceeded to grab his partner’s phone, a Samsung Galaxy worth £139, and threw it against the property’s laminated flooring, causing it to smash. He then threw a chest of drawers.
His partner left the address at that point and went to stay with a neighbour, but when Bone could not be located by officers, she went home.
Later on the same day, at around 10pm, she could near noise coming from outside the house and called 999 again. She noted attempts to open the front door, and could hear him walking around the side of the property before the shattering of glass.
She then opened the door to let Bone into the house, and tried to phone the police once again. However, he “grabbed” the phone and threw it against the wall.
Officers did arrive, however, and Bone was arrested. When interviewed at the time, he admitted to the criminal damage.
“The fact that he was trying to smash phones to stop her calling police is, I think, an aggravating factor,” Ms Pratt-Vivian said.
In mitigation, Tiffany Meredith said that Bone and his partner have never separated since the incident.
“It was an argument on the day. She felt quite pressured into giving a statement to police,” the solicitor said.
Magistrates were told that Bone’s partner retracted that statement “fairly quickly”. He was therefore going to be handed a conditional caution, but “unfortunately he didn’t comply with that”.
Ms Meredith said Bone had been with his partner on the day of his offences and had also been to the pub. He had been struggling with his mental health in the period beforehand, and his mother had recently died.
She described a series of circumstances in which the defendant either attempted to attend sessions as part of his conditional caution but was told to go home after arriving five minutes late, or occasions where he could not go along.
“I would ask you to bear that in mind when you deal with him today,” Ms Meredith said, before detailing Bone’s mental health struggles, which have involved him attending meetings with a psychotherapist.
“He is doing everything he can at the moment to get himself back on track and not to find himself back in front of the court,” she added.
The solicitor admitted that Bone was “too forceful” when banging the door on the day of his offences, but said he did not mean to smash any glass.
She also argued that his offences were of “medium culpability” because there had been little planning involved, and suggested that a conditional discharge would “hang over him and cause him to reflect”.
She concluded by telling magistrates that the damaged phone had been replaced, while the broken windows and door had been paid for.
Magistrates therefore opted to hand Bone a £40 fine, as well as ordering him to pay £50 legal costs and a £16 victim surcharge.
