CRIMINALS jailed in August include a rapist, a prolific supermarket thief, a drink driver who nearly killed a doctor, and a knife-wielding robber.
Here are the people jailed for Dorset offences throughout August 2023.
Daniel Tew
A man who raped a woman at a Bournemouth hotel has been jailed for nearly ten years.
Daniel Tew, 42 and of Mowbray Road in Southampton, was sentenced to nine years at Winchester Crown Court on August 2.
The court heard that Tew raped a woman in her 40s at the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth.
The victim was asleep in the early hours of June 18, 2022, when Tew began assaulting her. He head-butted her, spat at her, verbally abused her and ripped up her clothing. He also destroyed her phone, making it unusable.
Tew was sentenced to eight years for rape, and one year for causing actual bodily harm and false imprisonment.
He will also be on the sex offenders' register for life.
Timothy Heath
A prolific thief who relentlessly stole meat from shops in Bournemouth has been jailed.
Timothy James Heath was responsible for more than 20 shoplifting offences at Tesco and Co-op food stores from February to July this year.
The 35-year-old of no fixed abode stole more than £1,500 worth of meat and other items during the crime spree, which police said had a “detrimental impact” on the community.
Often on a daily basis, Heath would enter the Tesco and Co-op stores in Ashley Road and Holdenhurst Road respectively and steal hundreds of pounds worth of meat products.
Appearing in the dock at Poole Magistrates’ Court on August 7, Heath was sentenced to 29 weeks in prison after he admitted a total of 23 theft offences.
Alan Cozens
A man ended up in prison for getting behind the wheel of a car less than a year after he was disqualified and spared immediate custody.
Alan Alfred Cozens received a nine-month sentence, suspended for two years, in April 2022 for a bout of dangerous driving which ended when he crashed off a road and into a field.
He was disqualified from driving for 18 months, however, the defendant, who has never had a licence, was shopped behind the wheel at the ASDA car park in St Paul’s Road on December 29, 2022.
At a sentencing hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court, defence barrister Rob Griffiths said Cozens bought the car so he could take his pregnant girlfriend to hospital appointments.
Cozens was sentenced to six months imprisonment and disqualified from driving for 13 months and five days.
Kyzah Bhachu
A knife-wielding robber used a hire bike to cycle around Bournemouth and target his victims.
Kyzah Bhachu, 19, mugged three young people within hours of each other before being caught at a train station miles away flaunting their possessions.
Bhachu and another unnamed male approached their victims and asked for the time before demanding their belongings and turning violent, Bournemouth Crown Court was told.
Riding Beryl bikes, the pair approached their first victim, aged in his late teens, when he was sat on a bench in Boscombe Chine Gardens.
After striking him around the head “at least three or four times” and threatening to produce a knife, Bhachu snatched the victim’s Apple headphones and fled.
Just over an hour later, he issued similar strikes and threats to another male before leaving with his coat and some cash.
Later that day, Bhachu and the second male approached a teenager in Kings Park Drive near Vitality Stadium and stole his phone.
The defendant, aged 17 at the time of the offences, was sentenced to 22 months in a young offender’s institution.
Nicholas Cash
A man’s “gratuitous campaign of coercion, violence and threats” left his former partner “a shell of her former self”.
Nicholas Daniel Cash sickening conduct included shooting his then girlfriend repeatedly with a BB gun, slashing her in the face with a piece of broken glass and locking her in their home alone.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard he controlled the woman over a period of nine months, even turning her against her own family through his “manipulative” behaviour.
Enquiries in recent months revealed that Cash, 23 and formerly of Bournemouth, had left the country via Dover around a week after his October trial date and flew to Thailand with a new partner.
Cash, who Dorset Police confirmed was still a wanted man, was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Sentencing, Judge Jonathan Fuller KC said Cash showed “absolute cowardice” by failing to face the complainant at trial.
Dominic Turner
A motorcyclist who caused the death of a much-loved grandfather when he tried to cross a road has been jailed.
Dominic Turner, 28, collided with John Robert Coleman in Commercial Road, Poole, on February 28, 2021.
The 72-year-old victim suffered life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to hospital, where he died around a month after the crash.
The pillion passenger on Turner’s motorbike, his then-girlfriend, sustained life-changing injuries but survived.
Turner pleaded guilty to causing Mr Coleman’s death by careless driving.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard how Mr Coleman had been waiting on the south side of the road for vehicles to pass and after looking left, right, and left again he began to cross.
It was said the defendant’s average speed along Commercial Road was estimated to be 48mph to 58mph.
A report from a police collision investigator said if Turner had been travelling at the speed limit he would have had an additional three-and-a-half seconds to see Mr Coleman.
Turner, now of Maidstone, was sentenced to one year imprisonment and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
Bleu Alford and Callum Knox
A gang of thieves stole more than £10,000 worth of cigarettes during a series of raids in Dorset.
Bleu Alford, Callum Knox, Leroy Dashwood and Damian Smith were sentenced for a combined 26 burglaries across six counties – costing businesses nearly £420k in damages and lost stock.
The four men, all from Southampton, were part of group which targeted supermarkets in Dorset during September and November 2020.
Stores targeted by the gang included Sainsbury’s in South Street, Wareham, as well as the Co-Operative and Tesco Express stores in Ringwood Road, Verwood.
Bleu Alford, 32, was jailed for two years and eight months.
Callum Robert Raymond Knox, 36, was jailed for two years and four months.
Leroy Glen Dashwood, 32, was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
Damian Lee Smith, 42, was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
Darren Wells
A man launched a drunken attack on staff at a pub before unleashing a tirade of racial abuse against a policeman.
Darren John Wells was described as a regular punter at The Victoria Cross pub in Ashley Road, Parkstone, until a violent incident on May 22, 2021.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard how the now 49-year-old Wells was drinking at the pub with his partner.
It was said that Wells, formerly of Poole, became verbally abusive to customers and members of staff upon being asked to leave.
During an argument, Wells turned to a female worker, grabbed her by the throat and pushed her towards a pool table.
Having been forced to exit, Wells tried to get back in but was stopped by landlord Ray Biggington. The defendant then attacked the landlord before fleeing the scene.
Wells later threatened a man in a car before racially abusing a police officer who arrested him.
The officer described the racial abuse as “vile”.
Wells was sentenced to 28 weeks imprisonment.
Holly Davies
A woman who nearly killed a cycling doctor after crashing into him before driving off and ‘leaving him for dead’ has been jailed.
Holly Ann Davies refused to admit she had knowingly crashed into Dr Jonathan Bickford on the A354 at Blandford, giving a “cock and bull story” to police about damage to her Mercedes.
The 36-year-old was also over the legal drink drive limit during the crash – which doctors say would have killed the GP had he not been wearing a helmet.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard how Davies maintained she had no knowledge of hitting Dr Bickford, and suggested the damage to her car had been caused by her parking on a main road by her home in Milborne St Andrew.
Sentencing, Judge Robert Pawson told the defendant: “You must have known you’d struck [Mr Bickford]. You drove to work, you buried your head in the sand, and then you lied to police.”
Davies was jailed for 14 months and disqualified from driving for 37 months.
Omar Tablieh and David Mbugua
Two drug dealers were put behind bars after pedalling Class A drugs between Bournemouth and Swindon.
Omar Tablieh, 21 and of Tregonwell Road in Bournemouth, and 22-year-old David Mbugua, of Slough, admitted supplying heroin and cocaine.
The pair were arrested on May 31 when police located them in a Bournemouth hotel in possession of crack cocaine, heroin, cash, and burner phones.
Both men were sentenced to a jail term of three years and nine months at Swindon Crown Court on August 21.
Matthew Ponchaud
A man who strangled a woman and threatened to kill her has been jailed.
Matthew Ponchaud, 51 and of Bournemouth, pleaded guilty to the intentional strangulation of a woman and common assault.
It followed an incident at an address in Tisbury on November 12 last year.
Ponchaud then made several phone calls to his victim, in breach of his bail conditions, and on January 9 threatened to kill her if she did not drop the charges.
Further to this, on March 7 he was stopped on Hindon High Street and was arrested for drink driving.
Ponchaud was sentenced to 18 months in prison and disqualified from driving for 27 months.
Martin Batchelor of Wiltshire Police said: “I want to pay tribute to Ponchaud’s victim, who despite intimidation continued to bravely speak to us about what had happened so that we were able to bring him to justice.”
Nicholas Castle
A disqualified driver deliberately crashed into a police van before making off from the scene at speed.
Nicholas John Craig Castle found himself back before the courts for a “spree” of driving offences committed over two weeks.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard that despite being disqualified from driving by a judge in May last year, 26-year-old Castle still owned seven cars and two motorbikes.
In one of the incidents, Castle was seen driving a Peugeot 207, with up to two passengers, in Shaftesbury.
A police van went in front of him in an attempt to get him to stop but he accelerated and rammed the Dorset Police vehicle, damaging it.
He tried to use his car to push the van out of the way before speeding off out of sight.
Castle, of Maple Road in Shaftesbury, was jailed for 23 months and disqualified from driving for 35 months.
Wayne Rayner
A man with a “record of violent offending” attacked his victim after claiming she had been "trying it on with his partner".
Wayne John Rayner rained blows with clenched fists upon the woman before headbutting and biting her.
He threw a coffee table at her before leaving the victim's home with his partner.
The 38-year-old also assaulted his partner twice with other offences committed against police officers, including when a constable was trying to give him first aid.
During a hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court on August 7, Judge Jonathan Fuller KC jailed Rayner for four years and two months.
He told the defendant: “You have an established record of violent offending which seems to me to be pretty well entrenched.”
Samuel Farnden
A motorcyclist who drove his vehicle at a police officer as he tried to avoid being detained has been jailed.
Officers’ were drawn to the Samuel Leslie Farnden’s motorbike in Christchurch Road near Pokesdown Railway Station on the morning of June 24, 2022.
They began to follow him and saw him overtake vehicles before accelerating along the main road above the speed limit.
Police illuminated their blue lights and tried to block the defendant’s path when he came to a red traffic light.
However, Farnden took a couple of steps back on his motorbike before revving the engine and moving forwards.
The front wheel of the motorcycle collided with PC Robert Williams, who had exited his vehicle to detain the defendant.
As the officer grabbed the 24-year-old to prevent him getting away, the KTM motorbike shot off and almost did a cartwheel before hitting the police car, Bournemouth Crown Court heard.
The defendant received a sentence of 10 months’ imprisonment and was disqualified from driving for 17 months.
Benjamin Fooks
A man who treated his on-off girlfriend like a “punching bag” as he carried out a persistent attack on her outside her home has been jailed.
Benjamin Fooks was described as “hitting her like a boxer” by witnesses during the incident on April 4 in Bournemouth.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard that the intoxicated Fooks launched into the violent episode shortly after he had accused the woman of being with other men in front of her friend.
Members of the public tried to intervene and Fooks, 34, only relented and then fled the scene when one of them said they were calling the police.
The defendant, previously of River Way, Christchurch, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and breach of the suspended sentence.
His defence barrister said Fooks was sorry for what he did and thinking about the attack “breaks him inside”.
Fooks was jailed for 27 months and handed a five-year restraining order.
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