Here are the latest cases from the region's courts:
BIDDULPH:
Thirty-eight-year-old Natalie Doorbar has been handed an absolute discharge at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after she admitted criminal damage. Prosecutor Omar Majid said the incident happened at her mum's address at 9.30pm on November 24, 2023.
Mr Majid said: "She was drunk and asked to use the toilet. She was admitted to the property. On entry she became aggressive. She was told to leave. As she screamed and shouted and made threats to her mother, she picked up a brick and threw it at her mother's car. It hit and damaged the front bonnet."
The court heard Doorbar, of Kingsfield Road, Biddulph, spent nearly five months in custody. Mark Le Brocq, representing Doorbar, asked Judge Graeme Smith to impose an absolute discharge.
Judge Smith said: "I accept this was an impulsive act carried out when you had been drinking."
STOKE-ON-TRENT:
Sex offender Liam McCarthy - who was caught using computers at Hanley Library and joined a dating agency without telling the police - has been spared jail. The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching a SHPO and his sentence was deferred in January.
The court heard he was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) in July 2022 for numerous offences including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity. But he breached the order on two occasions and was jailed for eight months in February 2023.
He breached it again, in June last year, when he joined Hanley Library and used the computers 10 times without informing the police. And on July 7 he set up an account on the Plenty of Fish dating site, again without notifying officers.
Judge Graeme Smith deferred McCarthy's sentence for four months so he could continue to co-operate with a psychiatric assessment. He also had to comply with the SHPO and the notification requirements of the sex offenders' register and not commit any further offences.
The court heard he has been open and honest with the professionals he engaged with. Judge Smith said he was satisfied the sentence should be suspended. He sentenced McCarthy, of Sir Thomas Whites Road, Coventry, to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, with a rehabilitation activity requirement for 20 days. The defendant was ordered to pay 150 costs.
NORMACOT:
Drink-driver Naveen Kandru has been banned from the roads for 20 months. Prosecutor Emma Thompson told North Staffordshire Justice Centre the police were called at 8am on May 1 to Church Terrace Care Home, Cheadle, as a man was asleep in the driver's seat of his car with the engine running.
Police tried to raise the 26-year-old defendant. They could not wake him so they smashed the front passenger window to wake him up. Miss Thompson said: "It was obvious he was heavily intoxicated. The vehicle had no insurance.
"He was taken to custody and breathalysed. He gave a reading of 76 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, against the legal limit of 35."
Kandru, of Buccleuch Road, Normacot, pleaded guilty to drink-driving and driving without insurance.
Mark Harrison, mitigating, said Kandru co-operated fully with the police. He has no previous convictions. Mr Harrison said: "He thought he was ok to drive. He clearly wasn't."
Magistrates fined Kandru £120 and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £48 surcharge. His ban will be reduced by 20 weeks if he completes a drink-drivers' rehabilitation course.
BURSLEM:
Forty-seven-year-old Azahar Bukhari, of Evans Street, Burslem, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing class A drug cocaine with intent to supply when he appeared at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court. The offences date to June 12, 2021 and July 24, 2021.
His case was adjourned to allow for the preparation of a psychiatric report. He was bailed.
CHEADLE:
Twenty-three-year-old Samuel Evans was convicted by a jury at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court of causing grievous bodily harm at Leek on November 3, 2021. He was bailed to live at an address in Wedgwood Road, Cheadle, and will be sentenced after a report is prepared on him by a probation officer.
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