The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A woman has been given a suspended prison sentence after a court heard she had obstructed and assaulted police officers on two occasions, used an axe to smash a car windscreen and twice failed to provide breath samples.
Pharramena Barsby, 39, of Cheal Road, Gosberton admitted all the offences when she appeared before
District Judge Peter Veits, sitting at Boston Magistrates Court.
Prosecuting, Marie Stace said that in the first incident at 6.10pm on December 14 last year, at Spilsby
Road, Deeping St James, police found a stationary Range Rover with Barsby in the driving seat.
She said she gave a false name to the officers, refused to get out of the car and had to be dragged out
before she could be arrested and placed in a police van.
Ms Stace said Barsby also gave a false name to the custody sergeant and refused to give a breath sample
for analysis.
She said that when Barsby took her boots off as she went into the cell, she hit one of the officers with it,
saying: “I have been waiting to hit that bitch since I got here”.
In interview, Barsby said she had been living in the Range Rover as she had nowhere else to live and said
she had given a false name as she had previous convictions and didn’t want the police to know who she
was.
Ms Stace said that in the second incident, at 7.30pm on March 4 this year, she had used an axe to smash
the windscreen of an Alfa Romeo car belonging to a former friend, leaving the axe embedded.
She said Barsby was traced and arrested, during which she kicked an officer in the chest and referred to
the victim in racially derogatory terms.
Ms Stace said she was not compliant with the breath test procedure and was also abusive to the officers
and used homophobic terms to one of them.
It was said Barsby had convictions for failing to provide specimens for analysis in 2017 and an assault
occasional actual bodily harm for which she was sent to prison in 2018.
Mitigating, Stuart Wild said she had realised she could not go on in the same way and since March had
been in residential alcohol treatment and was now alcohol free.
He said she was genuinely remorseful and accepted she had placed herself in a very dangerous position.
Judge Veits said the offences merited prison but there was a ‘very positive probation report’ and so he was
suspending for a year prison sentences totalling 14 weeks.
He also ordered she take part in 20 days rehabilitation and be electronically monitored for alcohol
abstinence for 90 days.
She was also ordered to pay £100 compensation for the damage to the car and £50 to each of the police
officers who had been assaulted.
She was banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £213 in court costs and charges.
