A homeless man assaulted a police officer two weeks after stealing steak worth £41.
Daniel Ebanks, 44, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker, using threatening or abusive words or behaviour and theft when he appeared at Swindon Magistrates’ Court.
Prosecutor Pauline Lambert said police dispatched to Harding House in East Street on 21 October following a report about a man causing a nuisance in the building.
When approached by the officers, he became aggressive – pushing PC Louise Godwin in the chest. He continued to shout and swear in the street, despite being told the stop.
After being arrested, he was identified for a theft which took place in Iceland on 7 October. Six packets of steak worth £41 were stolen from the store.
The court heard that Ebanks has previous convictions for similar crimes – including a dwelling burglary which saw him jailed for 16 months.
Tony Nowogrodzki, defending, that “life’s been cruel” to his client recently. He said that a friend had allowed him to live with him at Harding House, but later changed his mind and asked him to leave.
“He was terribly upset. He should have heeded the warnings and walked away, but he had nowhere to go”, Mr Nowogrodzki said.
Adding: “He is a man right at the bottom of the pile. On that basis, he started arguing with a police officer; you never win and we all know where that’s heading.”
Ebanks is street homeless and suffers from depression, anxiety and a sleep disorder. He receives £250 a month in benefits.
District Judge Joanna Dickens said officers “do an important job and they deserved to be treated with total respect”.
Adding: “This officer was simply doing her job, and it’s a difficult job at that. She didn’t deserve to be assaulted but it wasn’t the worse kind of assault on a police officer – but it was a push and it shouldn’t have happened.”
She told Ebanks to pay £100 in compensation to the officer and removed all fines imposed by the court on previous occasions.
“You’re slightly better off financially than you were when you came into court”, Ms Dickens added.
