Man punched police officer after refusing to move bike

A Spalding man punched a police officer who was arresting him after he refused to move his bicycle, a court has heard.

Timothy John Philips, 53, of Park Road admitted using threatening behaviour and assaulting the officer during the incident at Springfields Shopping Centre on October 1 last year, having denied it at a previous hearing.

Prosecuting, Paul Wood said police were called to the shopping centre by security staff after Philips refused to move his bicycle that was causing an obstruction and two PCSOs attended after he told the security staff to ‘see what happens’ if they moved it themselves.

He said Philips refused to accept the advice of the PCSOs to move the bicycle and a police officer attended who decided Philips had to be arrested but, as he placed handcuffs on him, Philips punched the officer in the face.

Mr Wood said Philips had previous convictions for assaulting the police.

Mitigating, Daven Naghen said Philips had an’ addictive personality’ and had only wanted ‘to do his shopping and go’.

He said Philips had a shoulder injury that was aggravated when the officer went to handcuff him and he ‘instinctively’ hit out.

After hearing that Philips was already on post sentence supervision by the Probation Service following a
38 week prison sentence, they imposed an 18 month conditional discharge and ordered him to pay £100
compensation to the police officer and a total of £107 in court costs and charges.