Mansfield mamba smoker was 'off his head' when he hid topless in damaged shed

A woman received a call to say a ‘lanky scrag-head… is hiding in your mum's shed’ on the afternoon of October 16 last year, magistrates were told on Thursday.

When she investigated, the woman found Lee Simrok ‘topless and slumped on the floor of the shed’ in a garden on Ravensdale Road – and the door was off its hinges.

"She shouted at him to get out but he appeared oblivious and she suspected he was under the influence of drugs," said prosecutor Becky Allsop.

"He started muttering to himself and she filmed him on her phone before he jumped over the fence and walked off up the road."

When he was interviewed by the police, Simrok said he was ‘off his head on mamba and didn't know what he was doing’.

He apologised after he was shown the camera footage.

The court heard he has 58 previous convictions for 114 offences and was last in trouble in October 2018 when he was fined for ‘a drug-related incident’.

Pars Samrai, mitigating, said: "He has realised - as a man who is nearly 40 - he has to stop behaving like a 14-year-old.

"Prior to this he hadn't troubled the courts or police for almost three years. Before that he was offending regularly.

"At the time he was taking Class B drugs. He is now abstaining. He is making serious efforts to lead a law-abiding life."

He said the discovery of Simrok would not have been a ‘pleasant sight’ but there was ‘no evidence she suffered any harm or harassment’ and ‘it seemed’ the woman knew him.

He said Simrok, who suffers from epilepsy, was now taking new medication.

Simrok, 39, of Blake Crescent, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to criminal damage when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

Magistrates handed him a conditional discharge for nine months, and ordered him to pay £150 compensation, which will be added to the £820 he already owes.

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