Homeless man smashed Mansfield hairdresser’s window after wrongful eviction by council

Mark Walters was detained by a witness who saw him damage the window of 2nd Generation hair salon, on Bancroft Lane, at 9.40pm, on Sunday, April 3.

Prosecutor Teresa Simms said the defendant has 27 previous convictions for 69 offences, and was last before the courts in 2016.

Lesley Pidcock, mitigating, said Walters, aged 49, had "a very difficult few months" after the council wrongly issued him with an abandonment notice.

"That set him off on a spiral," she said. "He was made homeless for a good number of months.

"On this particular day he had been told he was in line for a bungalow, but then found out it had been given to someone else.

"He decided to get drunk."

Mrs Pidcock said Walters had been working with Change Grow Live, an agency that helps people with substance abuse issues, and they were trying to find him a permanent home.

"He has been treated badly," she said. "He told me today - 'I am too old to be here.'

"He was in trouble regularly, but there has been a long gap in his offending.

Walters, who is currently care of Sherwood Street, Mansfield, admitted criminal damage when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

He was fined £40, with a £34 surcharge. Magistrates ordered him to pay £85 compensation to the salon owner, rather than court costs.