Football hooligans fined for flouting orders
Jun 17 2010 by Edward Chadwick, Birmingham Mail
FIVE convicted football hooligans who flouted the terms of banning orders in the run-up to the World Cup have been fined after appearing at court.
The fans were required to hand in passports and report to a police station on the day of every England game so officers could keep tabs on known troublemakers.
All had been made the subject of legal orders to stop them attending games after trouble at matches across the country in the last five years.
A total of six men appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court yesterday after West Midlands Police swooped at their homes in dramatic dawn raids across the region.
Five of them pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with orders.
David Devine, who outlined the prosecution case against each of the men, said they had all been sent warning letters as long ago as April warning them that they faced arrest if they failed to hand over passports or report to stations on match days.
The offences related to England’s pre-World Cup warm up against Japan in Austria and their opening group game with the USA, he said.
Solicitors acting for the men – who are among 314 fans in the region banned from football – said that they had either forgotten, lost their passports or had been working.
Chairman of the bench Guy Crofts told one of the men: “Maybe you should put a note by the door to remind you or this World Cup is going to cost you a lot of money.”
Ricky O’Rourke, 19, of Merryhurst Road, Wednesbury, was fined £345 plus £135 costs; Adam Lynn, 21, of Kingstanding Road, Kingstanding, was fined £345 plus £135 costs; Anthony Lysaght, 21, of Bradley Road, Witton, was fined £360 plus £130 costs; Adam Gordon, 22, of Pierce Avenue, Olton, was fined £255 plus £135 costs and Stephen Hackett, 44, of Goodyear Avenue, Wolverhampton, was fined £340 plus £135 costs. The maximum penalty is a six-month prison sentence or £5,000 fine. Shaun Jones, 20, of Park Lane, Wolverhampton, pleaded not guilty to three offences. His case was adjourned to July 28 for trial.
