A MAN who helped cause £10,000 worth of damage to a Nottingham City Transport bus in a late night attack has been sentenced to a year in prison.
Simon Martin, 24, of Haverhill Crescent, Rise Park, got into a fight with another man on the NCT Nightrider service to Bestwood before smashing several windows – terrifying other passengers.
The incident was captured by CCTV cameras on the bus, which helped police identify Martin.
Today, at Nottingham Crown Court, Martin was sentenced to six months in prison for assault and six months for causing criminal damage.
Judge Dudley Bennett described the incident as “disgraceful hooliganism” and told the defendant: “It was terrifying for people on the bus, absolutely terrifying.”
The incident happened in the early hours of September 25, 2004. Martin, who works as a joiner, had previously pleaded guilty to both offences.
James Hett, prosecuting, told the court that Martin had seen someone on the bus he knew and got involved in a fight with him because of a previous fight between them.
Martin then got off the bus and smashed “three or four windows” while frightened passengers and the driver looked on.
Anna Soubry, defending, said Martin had consumed a “vast quantity of drink” that night.
She added: “In his own words, ‘I was childish and stupid. I was being drunk and irresponsible. I have caused a lot of problems for a lot of people’.”
Ms Soubry said the judge could “inflict some real punishment” on Martin by fining him heavily.
But Judge Bennett told Martin: “I’m sorry, but you have sent yourself to prison.”
The sentence was welcomed by Nottingham City Transport and the Respect for Transport campaign, which works to reduced real and perceived levels of crime on Nottingham’s public transport system
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