The 41year-old skip searcher, Mark Holden. who was hunted down by the police helicopter earlier this year has now faced the magistrates in Blackpool Magistrates Court. It was on Wednesday 4th January that Lytham residents reported seeing the police helicopter circling the household waste cycling centre on Saltcotes Road. The helicopter was following Holden, who was allegedly driving a Vauxhall Vectra. He was seen to attempt to steal electrical equipment dumped at the tip.
The National Air Police Service surveyed the location for around an hour using thermal imaging technology to find Holden hiding within the site. Police said they believed the dumped electrical items were to be taken by Holden and sold as scrap metal.
In Court Holden’s lawyer Andrew Nottingham asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider a different disposal of the case. The CPS agreed and said they would ask Lancashire Police to consider administering a caution to Holden of Beaconsfield Terrace, Chorley, instead of prosecution.
Therefore, Blackpool Magistrates have adjourned the case until 22nd February as they wait for confirmation from Lancashire Police that a simple caution has been administered. Magistrates may then give Holden a caution following the charge of ‘theft by finding’.
