Colchester: Booze brothers land in court

9:10pm Thursday 15th May 2008

A pair of brothers got into trouble after a booze-fuelled night out in Colchester.

Justin Taylor snapped the wing mirror off a taxi and smashed a passenger- side window, after he walked in front of the car as it was starting to pull away from traffic lights in the High Street, Colchester Magistrates Court heard yesterday.

After an "exchange" with the driver Taylor, of Wilson Marriage Road, Colchester, pulled the wing mirror off, leaving it hanging by its wires before smashing one of the windows, prosecutor Lucy Miller told District Judge David Cooper.

As police, who had arrived to arrest Taylor, 31, tried to carry out their duty he ran off into a nearby car park and continued to struggle once they had caught up with him.

Mrs Miller said at this point his brother Jordan Craig, 24, arrived and took hold of the arresting officer, holding him around his neck.

She said Craig, of Orwell Close, Colchester, was then struck with a baton in a bid to make him let go of the officer.

James O'Toole, mitigating, said despite the men having different surnames they are brothers, and Craig had acted in defence of his sibling as police tried to arrest him.

He said the incident had been drink-induced, adding that Taylor, who needed 15 stitches in his upper lip and had a broken rib, had not been out drinking alcohol for a couple of months beforehand.

"He is concerned he as got a problem with alcohol and has been trying to address that," he added.

Mr O'Toole said Taylor had drunk a lot and had earlier had an argument with his girlfriend.

Judge Cooper said: "He is being a nuisance. He just has not grown out of being a bit of a hooligan."

Taylor, admitted charges of resisting arrest, criminal damage and using threatening words or behaviour. He was jailed for six weeks and two weeks, to run concurrently, and fined £100, which was considered served by way of a day in custody.

Craig was given a six-week jail sentence suspended for a year after admitting assaulting a police officer, ordered to pay £250 compensation to the police officer and £60 costs.

"He had no right to behave that way," added Judge Cooper.

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