B&B boss avoids jail over text hassle
IPSWICH: A bed and breakfast owner who breached a restraining order by sending a businessman more than 200 text messages has avoided a jail term.
Russell Claydon
IPSWICH: A bed and breakfast owner who breached a restraining order by sending a businessman more than 200 text messages has avoided a jail term.
Andrew Algar, 48, was given a suspended prison sentence after a jury at Ipswich Crown Court found him guilty of breaching the order in an attempt to settle a family issue.
Magistrates had made the restraining order in April 2008 banning him from contacting Alan Clarke after convicting him of harassment. The order was to run indefinitely.
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The trial heard how, despite this, Algar, of Woodbridge Road, Rushmere St Andrew, bombarded Mr Clarke with text messages, some coming at 3am and 5am.
Although he admitted sending the messages, Algar said he thought the order only ran for a year and he did not accept it as a legal document because his date of birth was wrong.
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Judge John Devaux gave him a four-month suspended prison sentence and warned he would have to serve the term if he reoffended within the next two years.
During the trial, Algar claimed Mr Clarke had tried to get him locked under the Mental Health Act. He has also accused him making his life “miserable” and said he intended to move house.
Judge Devaux said he had tried to “deceive” the jury over the validity of the order and had breached it through a “continued obsession” over a family matter.
Asked if he had anything to say, Algar, who represented himself, said: “I would like to say that I will not be making any attempt to contact Mr Alan Clarke whatsoever.
“I will just have to live with it. Once my house is sold I will move on and setup elsewhere.”
Have you been the victim of harassment? Tell us your story. Write to Your Letters, The Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send us an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
