A disgruntled worker destroyed more than £40,000 worth of walls at the building site where he was working after he was the only person to turn up for work. The damage was caught on CCTV after the vandal got into a JCB and knocked down the walls.
Owen Powell, 42, of Barry, was said to be suffering from alcoholism and was in the throes of a mental breakdown when he angrily destroyed precast concrete walls which had been erected by his colleagues. The majority of the walls were damaged beyond repair.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard Powell had worked for O'Reilly's Precast for six months and was friends with owner Barry O'Reilly. But upon arriving to work at a building site in Barry on July 9 last year he found he was the only one on site.
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The defendant was said to have "become annoyed and lost his temper" and phoned site manager Mitchell Carter. Powell sounded intoxicated and agitated on the phone and his boss was unable to placate him.
He then got into a JCB forklift truck and drove it into 16 walls causing £22,418 worth of damage. Four of the walls were able to be repaired at a cost of £3,000 but the remainder had to be scrapped at the cost of £15,000. The total worth of the damage came to £40,418.
Mr O'Reilly was contacted by Mr Carter to say the walls had been damaged and the police were called. When Powell was arrested he told police he "felt pressured" when he found himself alone at the site. The defendant said he was also struggling with his mental health and was an alcoholic but couldn't explain why he had damaged the walls. He later told a member of the probation service he "had no recollection" of the incident.
Powell, of Ravenshoe Road, later pleaded guilty to criminal damage. The court heard he had a number of previous convictions including criminal damage, public order offences, and violent crimes. Prosecutor Nigel Fryer said there was an "element of revenge" about the offence and the defendant had "intended to cause a serious amount of damage".
In mitigation Adam Sharp said his client had spent time in prison but "rushed back to work" upon his release when he was "not in a fit state of mind". The barrister said "matters came to a head" when Powell found himself at work on his own and was unable to receive support or assistance.
Mr Sharp said the defendant was married for 17 years and has two daughters who relied on his income and if he was sent to prison his wife would be unable to meet their mortgage repayments. Since the offence he has been able to find new employment as a fabricator and was "well-regarded" in his industry.
Sentencing, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: "Your employer had shown you nothing accept support and encouragement in regards to your difficulty and this is the way you repay him... Anyone who behaves in the manner you did with your antecedence commits an offence that is too serious to be dealt with by anything other than a custodial sentence." However the judge said he was persuaded to suspend the sentence.
Powell was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months. He was ordered to carry out a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement and 180 hours unpaid work and to pay costs of £530.
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