A CARLISLE offender who skipped two appointments with the Probation Service so he could take a “working holiday” abroad has been jailed.

Despite his lawyer's plea for leniency – based partly on current prison overcrowding – 35-year-old Luke Fothergill was given an immediate three-month jail term by a Carlisle Crown court judge.

Judge Michael Fanning said courts had to show that court orders "have teeth" and defendants can not simply "pick and choose" which probation instructions they are going to comply with. 

The defendant left the country last month  - despite knowing he was on a community order for using threatening behaviour during a street fight.

Part of that sentence included a requirement to work with his probation officer and to attend a thinking skills course – the activity that he was due to take part in at the time he left the UK for a “working holiday” in Ibiza.

He did so despite being told not to by probation staff, Carlisle Crown Court heard. He was arrested when he returned to the UK.

Kim Whittlestone, for the probation service, said the defendant was clearly warned that there would be consequences if he failed to keep his appointments. Since his return and arrest he had spent five days in custody.

Jeff Smith, for Fothergill, said he hoped to persuade the judge that a prison term was not appropriate.

“He tells me it was a working holiday,” said the lawyer.

“He had earlier taken the steps to arrange the working holiday and he booked it before probation told him about the programme [the course he was meant to take]. He should have cancelled it.

"Notwithstanding that, he did return."

Mr Smith told the judge: "The prisons are full, so perhaps you could give him the benefit of the doubt on this occasion.”

Fothergill was immediately arrested when he arrived back in the country. He was due to start work as a roofer on Monday, said Mr Smith. “He knows that his place in the community is hanging by a thread,” added the lawyer.

Judge Michael Fanning expressed amazement that the defendant, of Cumberland Court, Denton Holme, Carlisle, was allowed to leave the country while subject to both a suspended sentence and community order with conditions.

The suggestion that somebody could be allowed to “pick and choose” what parts of a community order they complied with was “unpalatable,” said the judge. The defendant had a 19-year history of offending.

It contained 52 previous offences, and he had not remained offence free while he was subjected to the community order that he breached. “You simply chose to go away, having been instructed not to,” continued the judge.

He said: “The prisons are full, and they should be reserved for the worst offenders and the worst offences. The underlying offence… was a street fight, which was observed by others. A community order was chosen as appropriate.

“You were warned and had a shot across your bows. You effectively stuck two fingers up at the probation service when you chose to go.

“These orders are worthless if they have no teeth… You don’t get to pick and choose.”