A UKELELE playing busker was arrested – for falling asleep.
Blackburn magistrates heard Andrew Hugh Davie was subject to a criminal behaviour order (CBO) which bans him from sleeping in a public place between 9am and 9pm.
The two year CBO, which was made by Blackpool magistrates earlier this year, came because Davie was homeless and sleeping on the streets in Blackpool.
The 39-year-old thought the CBO only covered the area of Blackpool and after moving to Blackburn he was "shocked" when police locked him up when they found him sitting on the floor snoozing.
Davie, who performs Danny Boy, Amazing Grace and Wild Dover on his ukelele and also plays the recorder, branded the whole incident “a joke” after spending a night in the cells and being ordered to pay £130 in fines and costs.
“All I did was nod off,” he said after the hearing.
“I didn’t hurt or even upset anyone.
“When the police woke me up I couldn’t believe it when they said I was being arrested.”
Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said a Blackburn town centre CCTV operator spotted Davie sitting outside a shop on King William Street.
The police were informed and found Davie was asleep.
Miss Allan said the criminal behaviour order was made by Blackpool magistrates in June.
One of the conditions was that he was not to sleep in public between 9am and 9pm.
Richard Prew, defending, said in 30 years as a solicitor it was the most bizarre prohibition he had ever come across.
“He tells me he wasn’t represented when the order was made and if he had been I am sure that particular condition would have been opposed,” said Mr Prew.
“On this occasion he sat down with his ukulele to do some busking and nodded off.
“It was the most passive breach of an order you could imagine.”
District Judge Huw Edwards said the sentencing guidelines demanded a serious penalty.
“I think the circumstances merit me going outside those guidelines because this is at the very bottom end.
“There is no suggestion you were drunk, disruptive or under the influence of drugs. All you did was fall asleep.”
Davie, of the Salvation Army Hostel, Heaton Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to breach of a criminal behaviour order.
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