Shopfitter fined for dousing traffic warden in white paint
A SHOPFITTER has been fined for swearing at a traffic warden and pouring a tin of white paint over him.
Patrick Walker, 45, called council worker Michael Sheriff a “******* ****** ” before dousing him in paint.
Mr Sheriff stumbled backwards into the road and had to change his clothes and get a new uniform.
Walker, of Shipley, West Yorkshire, was working in Molly Malone’s Irish pub in Brighton when he saw the warden on the morning of Monday, October 2.
Walker admitted common assault and criminal damage to equipment owned by NSL, the council-contracted company which employs Mr Sheriff.
The bill for the damage was £1,200. Walker told Brighton magistrates court: “I’m sorry it happened. It was a spur of the moment thing. I am quite prepared to compensate for anything and I’m sure this won’t be happening again.”
Mr Sheriff fell into the road, which District Judge Tessa Szagun noted as an aggravating factor when sentencing Walker, who lives with his mother.
An eyewitness said: “I was walking to the seafront and didn’t even notice the warden at first.
“Then I noticed something going on and had to look twice to believe it. He was dripping from head to toe with white paint, completely covered in it.
“He did not look impressed. Some builders were laughing their heads off about it – they thought it was seriously funny.” Mr Sheriff’s colleagues brought him a new uniform to get changed. His work radio was also covered in paint.
Walker was ordered to pay a £1,400 fine, £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge. He was also handed a 12-month community order and told to carry out 18 hours unpaid work.
Judge Szagun said: “I am giving credit for the guilty plea but still consider this offence serious enough to deal with a community order.
“An aggravating feature is that warden fell back into the road.”
The judge said she could not ignore the fact the attack was on a traffic warden and that Walker was “behaving aggressively”. the