Boozed-up Mansfield man shouted racist abuse when asked to move his car

The anti-social behaviour officer knocked on Daryll Hughes' door after his neighbours on Spring Close, Sutton, complained his vehicle was blocking the path, on May 13, last year, said prosecutor Freddie Sail.

He was answered by a woman who became verbally aggressive and said she wasn't going to move it.

An "aggressive and abusive" Hughes pushed her aside, came outside, hurled a racist insult and tried to push the officer.

He said he was going to put his jeans on and come outside to beat him up, before telling him: "You should f*** off back on that boat."

Hughes added: "You know which boat I mean," and used a racial epithet when claiming to have plenty of friends.

When he was interviewed by police in May he made no comment, but subsequently explained he had just finished a 12 hour night shift and was drinking alcohol with his partner.

He claimed the council officer was "smirking" at him and added that he couldn't move his car because he had been drinking. Hughes said he didn't mean the comments to be racially abusive and added that he was remorseful and "wished none of it had happened."

Mr Sail said the defendant has 11 previous convictions for 21 offences, and was last in court in 2009 for an unrelated matter.

Morgan Hogarth, mitigating, said Hughes lost his job as an aviation engineer due to Covid and found "uncertain" temporary employment. His father had been diagnosed with cancer and he began drinking heavily.

He paid privately for medicated alcohol withdrawal and has moved away from his partner's council flat, the court heard.

“He accepts his reaction was shameful,” Mr Hogarth said.

Hughes, 50, of Moor Lane, Mansfield, admitted racially aggravated harassment when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

The chair told him it was a "nasty incident" which nearly passed the custody threshold.

He received a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay £85 costs, a £95 surcharge and £100 compensation to the officer.

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