Newbury man jailed after urinating in bank foyer
AN ALCOHOLIC who urinated in front of disgusted bank customers has been jailed.
Newbury magistrates told Dean Gromowski Cook that custody was the only appropriate sentence for his persistent offending because all other options had failed to deter him.
Anne Sawyer-Brandish, prosecuting on Thursday, July 31, said: “There were many customers in the Royal Bank of Scotland in Newbury Market Place.
“They were shocked to see this defendant stagger up and urinate inside the doorway. Even those round the corner could see him quite clearly as the walls are made of glass.”
She added: “Police later found him drinking from a can of alcohol in one hand, while clutching another can in the other hand. Market Place is a no drinking zone.”
Mr Cook, aged 41, of Newtown Road, Newbury, admitted being drunk and disorderly on July 1 this year.
He also admitted stealing razors and washing tyablets from the Co-op in Theale on July 3 and failing to surrender to bail.
The court heard he has more than 100 previous convictions, more than half of them alcohol related.
Stephen Collins, defending, said: “For many years he had a raging drug problem. To his credit, he managed to sort that out but, as so many do, he turned to alcohol, which has become, in many ways, worse than drugs for him.
“He was, for many days, in a coma and was told that his life would be measured in weeks if he didn’t stop drinking.”
Mr Cook did so, said Mr Collins, but has since relapsed.
He added: “He does not look well today, his face is swollen.”
Mr Collins told magistrates that doctors suspected his client’s drinking may have triggered Korsakoff's syndrome, a type of dementia in which sufferers present as drunk even when they are sober.
Despite Mr Cook’s confusion, memory loss and slurred speech, tests showed he had not been drinking recently, the court heard.
After retiring to read pre-sentence reports and to consider the matter, magistrates sentenced Mr Cook to two months in prison, noting that all other sentencing options had been exhausted.