Shopper who damaged 23 cars is spared prison

An irate shopper who scratched 23 parked cars with pieces of glass after he was asked to leave a store for ‘scaring customers’ has been spared jail.

Kevin Myers, 62, indiscriminately damaged the vehicles during two separate vandalism rampages in the town centre of Warrington, Cheshire.

A Jaguar XF, an Audi Q5, a 2023 MG4 Trophy and a brand new Renault Clio Esprit were just some of the vehicles damaged in the attacks, which occurred six days apart on February 12 and 18 this year.

As Myers walked free from Warrington Magistrates' Court, he told staff and JPs: 'Merry Christmas. I won't be seeing you again.'

Three weeks prior to the two destructive incidents, Myers had a stand-up row with Waqar Qayyaum, the owner of a store, who asked him to leave his premises for shouting in his shop.

On that day, Myers damaged a doorhandle on the victim's BMW which was parked outside.

The reason for the ensuing damage sprees in February and the total cost of the vandalism is not known.

In March, Myers, who has bipolar disorder, was jailed for three weeks for damage to three of the cars - two Nissan Qashqais and a VW Polo.

But this week he appeared before JPs over the remaining 20 vehicles he had attacked.

Myers, from Warrington, was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for six months and ordered to pay £154 compensation to Mr Qayyaum after he pleaded guilty to criminal damage.

Robert Earl, prosecuting, said: 'Last January 23, the defendant went into a shop, became irate and started scaring the shop's customers.

'The shopkeeper has asked him to leave. He has then become verbally abusive and aggressive and has gone outside the shop and attacked the victim's car, a BMW.

'He has grabbed the passenger door handle and is described as dragging the door handle and causing damage.

'This is the only offence where he has deliberately targeted a person's car. All the rest are basically randomly damaging the vehicles for reasons best known to himself.

'On February 12, there are five of those. On that occasion he was going around Densham Avenue and scratching vehicles with a sharp instrument. Members of the public recorded him and he has been caught on CCTV.

'He was basically going around and damaging those vehicles by scraping them with some sort of instrument.

'Similarly with the other guilty pleas, he has been going around scratching and damaging cars with some sort of instrument, again for no reason we can ascertain, apart from wanting to cause damage. We do not have the total value of the damage.

'He has offended so often, offended against so many different people, 20 victims, who have had their cars damaged, putting the victims through the inconvenience of fixing them, and he just carries on offending.

'I am trying to think of a less emotive word than rampage but that is effectively what it was, destroying vehicles for no apparent reason. It is incomprehensible to me but it is not my job to comprehend.'

Myers had previous convictions from 2017 for breaching an exclusion order and possession of a bladed article.

His solicitor Mark Lever said: 'He has picked up a piece of glass and has just gone down the street walking and damaging these cars. It would appear he has been diagnosed with bipolar but is now effectively medicated and there have been no further issues.

'He is generally very anxious and very nervous and there was a small period where things went completely wrong for him. He is not really known to the court.'

Sentencing Myers, JP Andrew Brothers told him: 'This is not an acceptable way to go about your ways, is it?'