Robber has his curfew relaxed... so he can smoke in the garden

A CONVICTED robber who escaped being jailed has had his eight-month electronically-tagged curfew relaxed so he can go out into the garden for a cigarette.

Smoker Matthew Salamino had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to robbing a teenager of his bike, a bag and his phone in a Coventry park, after originally denying the charge.

The 20-year-old, of Hermes Crescent, Henley Green , was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years after the judge heard he had turned his life round since the incident.

He was also ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work, made subject to an 8pm to 7am electronicallytagged curfew for eight months and was ordered to pay £1,800 compensation to his victim and £500 costs.

But just days after the sentence was imposed, he was back in court asking for the terms of the curfew to be relaxed.

His barrister Ian Windridge explained that Salamino lives at his mother’s home, where she will not allow him to smoke in the house because there is also a small child living there.

But when the monitoring company turned up to fit his electronic tag, they would not extend it to the garden because the order specified he had to be at the address - which they interpreted as meaning inside. Recorder Christopher Tickle responded that he had assumed the address would include the curtilage - the land immediately surrounding it. He added: “To be clear, let us extend the curfew to include the garden.” When the sentence had been imposed five days earlier, the court heard that the incident dated back to August 2016. The teenage victim had left his girlfriend’s home on his bike at about 10pm to meet a friend. As they met up, he received a text from a girl he knew saying she was in nearby Gosford Green park and could see him, and to come over. As he and his friend crossed the road and went into the park, with him pushing his bike, he saw Salamino jump off his own bike and run towards him, said prosecutor Daniel Oscroft. The teenager dropped his bike and ran, but Salamino tripped him up, sat on his chest and held a bike lock to his neck, telling him: “Give me your phone. I want your bag.” Salamino took the bag and went through it before telling the girl, who has been cleared of being involved in the robbery, to pick up his bike. He then cycled off on the boy’s bike, while the girl rode with him on his bike, added Mr Oscroft. After hearing from Mr Windridge that since then Salamino had turned his life round, had not re-offended and had a good job, Recorder Tickle had said he would suspend the sentence and spare him from jail.