Drive-through Vandal Attack
Pillaton always has been a quiet village until a few weeks ago when we suffered from a drive-through vandal attack which occurred late in the evening and also in the early hours of the morning.
There were several victims in the village.
Pillaton was not the only Village affected as the culprits damaged cars, smashed windows and stole from roadside stalls.
You will be pleased to hear that the Police caught the persons responsible and have charged them with various offences. Two appeared at Bodmin magistrates Court on Friday the 3rd September 2010. I attended court and the outcome was as follows.
Two defendants Mr Davey Shephard, Saltash and Mr Joshua Toll, Callington appeared and were both charged with 3 counts of Criminal Damage and Shephard was also charged with the theft of 24 eggs.
Shephard pleaded guilty to all charges and asked for 18 other related offences to be taken into consideration. These offences related to the damage caused during the drive through vandal attack on Pillaton and the surrounding Villages.
Toll pleaded not guilty to the charges and his case was adjourned for a trial at Bodmin on the 19th October 2010. His defence is that he admits being at the scene of the offence but did not cause the damage.
The events of the night was started by the stealing of the eggs, from Clapper Bridge, these were used as missiles on the first drive-through. They then went to Waitrose car park where three others joined them in the car. They gathered stones from the car park to use as missiles and throw at cars whilst they were driving. When they ran out of stones they gathered more.
Shephard has no previous convictions and was sentenced to a 6 month Community Order within which will be a 4 month period of Curfew from 1900hrs to 0700hrs Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He was also ordered to pay a contribution towards compensation of £15.00 per victim which amounted to more than £300.00. The overall cost of the damage was many thousands of pounds.
Our Neighbourhood Police Office is WPC Short and she is based at Saltash Police Station. When working she can be contacted on her work mobile number of 07525 409646.