Probation supervisor sacked after man used leaf blower naked in a churchyard

A MAN used a leaf blower naked in a graveyard and filmed himself running nude through a field while he was supposed to be undertaking community work.

Anthony Hutchinson, 25, from Bournemouth, was also filmed wearing a priest’s robes at a church while on probation. He had been ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work by a judge at Bournemouth Crown Court as part of a sentence for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified in June.

The company in charge of the community payback scheme, Working Links, said it was an isolated incident and a supervisor had been sacked. But Ian Lawrence, the general secretary of NAPO, the probation workers’ union, said Mr Hutchinson’s actions were “appalling”. He told the BBC: “You couldn’t really make that story up... It actually speaks volumes for the level of supervision, or non-supervision in this case. Let’s be clear. High-jinks stuff can happen in any situation, but we’ve been warning Working Links for a while that the way in which they are conducting unpaid work is not fit for purpose.”

Working Links operates the Dorset, Devon and Cornwall Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC), which delivers community payback for low and medium-risk offenders in the South West. A spokesman for the CRC said it was “pursuing enforcement action” and confirmed “a supervisor has been removed from his duties and is no longer working for the CRC”. A Working Links spokesman said: “The event was an isolated incident and we are confident we are delivering quality services across our CRCS.

“Across our Community Payback delivery, we work with hundreds of beneficiaries, contributing 750,000 hours of service each year to communities in which we serve.”