Sunderland yob barred from five city areas is jailed for flouting ban

Robert Friendship Smith was legally banished from the Hylton Castle, Town End Farm, Downhill, Red House and Castletown areas of Sunderland until December 7, 2020, after he was made subject to a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) in 2017.

Smith, who was serving a six-month jail term at the time for committing a racially aggravated affray in Downhill, was described in the CBO application as causing “significant issues in the north of the city for a number of years”.

Warned at the time that he would be arrested if he set foot inside the exclusion zone, Smith, formerly of Cranleigh Road, Hylton Castle, has been jailed for 12 weeks after he admitted ignoring the restrictions three times in the last six months.

South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court was told that the 23-year-old menace:

*Visited Ramillies Road, in Red House, on May 21 without reasonable excuse:

*Entered Kirkdale Square, in Downhill, on May 24 in breach of the ban;

*Was spotted in Blackwood Road, Town End Farm, on November 9 without permission.

Smith, now of Wesleyan House, Hetton, received a 12-week concurrent jail term for each of the CBO breaches after the court decided that “the defendant has a flagrant disregard for court orders”.

He also received three penalty points on his driving licence after pleading guilty to driving without a valid licence and must pay £213 in court costs.

A fifth charge of failing to comply with supervision requirements following his release from imprisonment was withdrawn.

The CBO was judged "the most significant success to dates" for the Sunderland North Safer Estates partnership, consisting of Northumbria Police, housing provider Gentoo and Sunderland City Council, when it was approved at Newcastle Crown Court on December 8, 2017.

Sunderland North Neighbourhood Inspector Don Wade said afterwards: “Smith’s persistent behaviour was understandably causing local residents a lot of distress and I hope they now feel they can continue their daily lives in a safer environment without having to put up with this on-going anti-social behaviour.”

The ban was amended last year to allow him to visit his girlfriend in Hylton Castle via a designated route of Washington Road, Canterbury Road and Chelmsford Road.

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