Asbo pensioner is released from jail
A WAR veteran who has spent the last six months in prison after breaching his anti-social behaviour order for the second time is a free man today.
A WAR veteran who has spent the last six months in prison after breaching his anti-social behaviour order (Asbo) for the second time is a free man today.
Arthur Burgess, 82, was released after a judge at Ipswich Crown Court ruled that the six months he had spent on remand was sufficient punishment - and the problem pensioner has now declared his intention to leave the country.
The breach of the Asbo took place on October 2 last year when Burgess made two phone calls to a planning officer at Suffolk Coastal District Council.
The officer is one of three people he is prohibited from contacting as specified in the Asbo, which was handed to him in October 2005.
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Burgess, of Cavendish Road, Trimley St Martin, was given the Asbo following an 11-year vendetta against his neighbour, Wilfred Youngs, over a dispute about land boundaries, as well as harassing council officers.
It made him the oldest recipient of the order in Suffolk and one of the oldest in the country.
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Burgess was sentenced to six months in prison in March last year for the first breach of the Asbo.
Sentencing him to 11 months in prison yesterday, Judge Peter De Mille said the 159 days already spent in custody meant he would be freed.
He told Burgess: “You must learn that court orders must be obeyed. If you have not learnt your lesson, next time you will have a very long sentence.”
Burgess was also warned that his only means of communication with the council must be in writing and addressed to the chief executive.
Burgess told the court he planned to leave the UK and live in northern Italy.
The former soldier, a widower, served as a rifleman in the 8th Army in Italy during the Second World War.
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