Live: Breaking news, traffic and travel across Teesside

The Evening Gazette's live breaking news blog brings you regular updates, pictures, video, tweets and comments covering the latest Teesside and North Yorkshire traffic, travel, weather, crime and council news for today, Thursday 9th October, 2014.

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Our Teesside breaking news live blog begins at 07:00am every weekday and is updated throughout the day and into the evening.

Judge describes a case of 'beer in - brains out' after Teesside University’s cleaning machine theft

The drunken theft of a floor cleaning machine has been described as a case of, “beer in - brains out,” by a judge.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the foolish theft took place on the night of Thursday, February 20 this year.

Mark Kowaltschuk, 34, and Joel Anthony Sallery, 24, had been out drinking at Teesside University’s Student Union on Southfield Road, Middlesbrough, when the pair decided to make off with one of the university’s industrial floor cleaners.

University staff were alerted by a customer that two men had left the building with the distinctive orange machine and staff confronted the drunken duo after spotting them running up Southfield Road with it.

Prosecutor Laurie Scott said: “They saw two men running away up the road pushing the machine. The males were taking it in turns to run at the curb with the machine - smashing it into the curb.

“One of the males fell over taking the machine with him.

When staff challenged the men, one of them said: “What are you doing? That’s mine.”

Ms Scott said there was some threatening behaviour, the members of staff had felt intimidated and used a radio to call for assistance.

“When the radio was produced, the two men ran off,” she said.

CCTV footage showed the pair making off with the machine however they weren’t identified until Wednesday March 12 when they returned to the Students Union and were recognised by staff - police were called and the men were arrested.

Neither of the men said they could remember anything of the evening.

Judge Howard Crowson, said: “I don’t for a second believe this was a planned theft, you headed to the Student Union because the beer was cheap and you drank too much of it and you behaved in a very foolish way.

“It’s a case of beer in - brains out. It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said but added that being drunk did not mean the men were unable to form an intention to steal.

The university declined to give a victim impact statement on the grounds that the stolen £6,000 machine was still in working condition.

Rebecca Brown, defending asbestos removal supervisor Kowaltschuk, said the dad earned £40,000 a year and worked in various parts of the country.

Ms Brown explained that the Crown no longer believed that this was a “professional planned offence”.

John Nixon, defending Sallery, who works fitting eco-friendly equipment, said his client expressed remorse and regret.

Kowaltschuk, of Cecil Street, Manchester, who had pleaded not guilty but was found guilty in a trial, was sentenced to a community order with 80 hours’ unpaid work and £500 in costs.

Sallery, of Beechway, Liverpool, who pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, was given a community order with a four week curfew from 8pm until 6am and was ordered to pay £85 in costs.

Spurs' loss to Middlesbrough FC was wake-up call Ryan Fredericks needed

Watching Boro thrash Tottenham 5-0 was the “wake-up call” Ryan Fredericks needed to get his career up and running.

Due to a knee injury, the talented full-back watched a 2012 pre-season friendly between Tony Mowbray’s side and a Spurs Under-21 development team from the sidelines in Portugal.

But he what he did witness made him determined to get out on loan with a league club so that he could gain valuable first team experience.

Boro played Tim Sherwood’s Spurs XI in Penina, on the Algarve, in July 2012, and since then, Fredericks has spent time on loan with Brentford, in League One, and Millwall, in the Championship.

“I was there at the time but I didn’t play in the game,” recalled Fredericks, who celebrates his 22nd birthday tomorrow. “It didn’t go too well for us and that was the wake-up call that I needed to go out on loan and play some proper football

“I was injured at the time, I think I was recovering after fracturing my knee so I was doing re-hab. But even just looking on I could see the difference in size between our lads and the Boro players and the way they played, it was so different I just wanted to go and play proper football.”

Two years and three months later, Fredericks’ career has come full circle. He’s now enjoying regular first team football with the team that inflicted that heavy defeat in the Portuguese sunshine.

After joining Boro on a season-long loan in August, the young Londoner has adapted well to his new, if unfamiliar, surroundings.

“It’s all open roads and no traffic, which is nice, but it is very different from being back at home,” he admitted.

“I’ve settled in really well, all the lads are really good here, they’ve take to me really quickly, asked me out for dinner and what not so I’ve been getting on the lads really well and that’s helped me settle quite a lot.”

What’s also helped is the experience gained from those spells at Brentford and Millwall.

“This time it’s been easy (to settle), after one or two days I was thinking ‘this is my club’.

“I thought it might take a few weeks to come in and get a game but I feel like I’m gelling with the team now and know what players can do what and how they like to play so that’s helping me as well. I feel like I’m adapting to the team.”

Initially signed as cover for Damia Abella, Fredericks is now the first choice right-back following the Spaniard’s operation to repair a cruciate knee ligament injury.

“It’s never nice to come into the team that way but sometimes that happens and I suppose it’s his loss and my gain,” said the Spurs defender, who says the fact that he’s signed up for a full season is a huge bonus.

“That’s a nice thing, I haven’t got to think ‘will they keep me on’ from month-to-month. I’m here for the season so I can get my feet under the table and get playing.

“My aim was to cement a starting place and then show everybody what I can do, to take each game as it comes and do my best in every game I play and whatever comes from that I will have to take.

“My first game was more about showing I could be trusted to play so I was more playing safe and showing what I can do defensively,” he added.

“But now the games have opened up a bit and I can show what I can do offensively.”

Image released to trace man in connection with Stockton assault

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to after an early hours assault outside a Stockton bar.

Two 23-year-old men were assaulted outside the bar between 2.30am and 2.45am on Saturday, October 4. One suffered a broken leg and another sustained a cut head and swollen jaw. Both needed treatment at the University Hospital of North Tees.

Cleveland Police want to speak to the man pictured in connection with the incident. He is described as white, in his mid-20s and of stocky build. He wore a dark blue top and had dark brown hair, shaved at the back and sides. He also had a distinctive tattoo on the back of his neck.

The man was in company with a woman described as white, in her early-20s, slim and with shoulder length, blonde hair. She wore a black and white striped top and black leggings.

Anyone with information on the man’s identity is asked to contact DC Gareth Davies on non-emergency number 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111

Cleveland Police branded 'vindictive' by former chief constable after £450,000 civil claim

Sacked Cleveland Police chief Sean Price has branded his former employer “vindictive” for launching a half-a-million-pound civil claim against him.

The force is suing Mr Price for £450,000 of alleged unlawful salary and bonus payments it says he was not entitled to - plus interest.

But the former chief constable says he was given the “golden handcuffs” deal over several years to keep him in post.

And after a preliminary hearing at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday he accused Cleveland Police of wasting taxpayers’ money.

But the Office of Police and Crime Commissioner Barry Coppinger said it had “a corporate responsibility” to pursue this case “on behalf of the public purse”.

Mr Price, from North Yorkshire, told Mr Justice Coulson that he was representing himself in the civil case.

A two-week trial has been set for March next year at a venue yet to be decided.

Outside court Mr Price told reporters: “I think it’s a real irony that Barry Coppinger was one of those people that authorised those payments to me because they wanted me to stay at Cleveland Police, and it’s now he that’s trying to get the money back.

“I don’t think it’s lawful what they are trying to do, but a court is going to have to hear it.”

Mr Price said “lessons aren’t being learned” at the force, and referred to the £5m cost of Operation Sacristy which investigated allegations of corruption in the force, and led to no-one being prosecuted.

“And now this feels like vindictiveness,” he said. “I have done nothing wrong. I haven’t got the money and this is just a further waste of public money.”

Mr Price claimed the cost so far in legal fees was £50,000. “Imagine how much a two-week trial is going to cost,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner said: “The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has a corporate responsibility to pursue this case on behalf of the public purse and it would be inappropriate to comment further until the conclusion of the ongoing litigation.”

Father-of-two Mr Price was arrested in August 2011 and sacked in October 2012 - the first police chief to be fired in 35 years - after a disciplinary hearing found he had lied about the role he played in the recruitment of former police authority chairman Dave McLuckie’s daughter.

Mr Price has denied any wrongdoing.

When he took up his role as chief constable in 2003, his original salary of £125,000 included a £32,000 car allowance, £4,000 a year towards private school fees for his son, and £1,000 towards private health insurance. By 2011, he was on £191,000-a-year.

Middlesbrough has highest proportion of asylum seekers in the country

Talks will be held with a government minister after it was revealed Middlesbrough has the highest proportion of asylum seekers in the country.

As reported, Middlesbrough is the only place in the country to breach national guidelines on the number of asylum seekers.

Now Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald is to meet with MP James Brokenshire, Minister for Security and Immigration at the Home Office, to discuss the issue.

Mr McDonald said he was “proud” to live in a country “where we offer sanctuary and solace to people in such circumstances”

The Labour MP added: “People seeking asylum have fled their home country for a whole number of reasons, with many escaping death and torture.

“I have already spoken in person to the relevant Minister, James Brokenshire, about the ability of the statutory authorities to properly respond in circumstances where the numbers seeking asylum exceed Government limits in any given area.

“We have agreed to meet formally in the coming weeks and I look forward to securing some assurances from him in this regard.”

The Government says that no local authority area should need to accommodate more than one asylum seeker per 200 of population.

But a Middlesbrough Council report has revealed almost 1,000 asylum seekers are currently being housed in Middlesbrough - almost 1.5 times the Government limit.

In Redcar and Cleveland, however, there is just one household of asylum seekers in the borough.

A spokesman for Redcar and Cleveland Council said: “In Redcar and Cleveland G4S’s preferred housing provider, a private landlord, has only one property and the number of asylum seekers is believed to be in single figures.”

The figures for Stockton are currently unknown as the Home Office does not break down figures into boroughs from national statistics and Stockton Council does not collate the information.

Most asylum seekers are sent to homes around the UK while the Home Office decides whether to grant them asylum - a process which can take up to a year.

Grangetown student caught waving machete to his mates in 'monumentally stupid' act

A college student spent his 20th birthday in the dock after he was caught waving a machete in the street.

One-time stab victim David Clark’s “monumentally stupid” first offence carried a maximum sentence of four years’ imprisonment.

He was showing off the “ornamental” blade to his mates when he was caught on CCTV, Teesside Crown Court heard today.

He was seen brandishing the large machete in the Somerset Road area of Grangetown.

CCTV operators spotted him in a white tracksuit top waving the weapon about at 2.55am on August 7.

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh said he showed the knife, but not in a threatening or aggressive way, then put it away.

Police caught up with the group of three young men and one woman in an alley off Wilton Way.

They tried to run but were stopped and arrested. Officers found the machete and a knuckle duster.

Clark, then 19, said he took the machete off a wall at his home to scare a group of men who had threatened him after a falling-out.

He denied intending to use it beyond that, and said he knew nothing of the knuckle duster.

Clark, of Attlee Road, Grangetown, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon. He had no previous convictions.

Andrew White, defending, said: “He wasn’t goading or threatening or posturing or anything like that.

“Monumentally stupid on his part. He does regret it.

“He simply shows it to his mates. He showed it to them for five seconds than put it back away again out of view.

“He had no intention of using this machete on anyone. He had received threats.

“He foolishly took this ornamental weapon with him and he took it to scare them off.

“He was frightened. He’s been seriously assaulted in the past. He’s been stabbed himself. He’s had his jaw broken.”

He told how Clark since disassociated himself from former associates, moved back in with his parents, no longer drank or took drugs, was looking for work and had enrolled on a college course in plastering.

The judge, Recorder Ben Nolan QC, told Clark: “The court is bound to consider deterrence when passing sentence in this case.

“There is a political move to make the carrying of these weapons subject to a mandatory prison sentence. But at the moment that has not been brought into force.

“I regard the possession of such a weapon as a serious offence for that reason.

“I take into account your previous character. You’ve managed to put your drug and alcohol dalliance behind you.

“But for this matter, your future is looking a lot brighter than in the past.”

Clark was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months with 140 hours’ unpaid work.