Former Tadley man Frank Cronin damages ex-girlfriend's car (From This is Hampshire)

Frank Cronin, of Limes Park, Basingstoke, told by judge to sort himself out

11:00am Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Helen Morton

A DRUNKEN man has been punished after he vandalised his ex-girlfriend’s car and smashed windows at her home.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Frank Cronin lived at O’Bee Gardens, Tadley, when the incident took place, on February 4.

The court heard he had called up his ex-girlfriend Abigail Neal, who lived nearby in Tadley, and asked her for a lift.

Prosecuting, Mr Stewart Patterson said that when Miss Neal arrived at Cronin’s home address, at about 7pm, “she found he was drunk and she decided to drive on”.

He said that Cronin did not take this well and sent her a number of text messages, most of which were incomprehensible but some of which could be made out.

Mr Patterson said: “One said ‘I’m wait in your yard’, meaning her garden, and one said ‘your mum’s too’.”

He said that at about 7.25pm, Miss Neal heard a loud bang and when she looked out of her window, she saw Cronin running away.

He added: “She went downstairs to have a look and saw her windows had been broken and the windscreen of her car had been broken.

“She contacted the police. The defendant was stopped very shortly afterwards and arrested.”

Mr Patterson said that Cronin had admitted the crime and owned up to damaging Miss Neal’s car previously in his interview with the police.

The court heard that Cronin, who is unemployed, has a long list of previous convictions, including battery, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and possessing a weapon in public. Last August, he was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for a year.

Defending Cronin, who pleaded guilty to one charge of criminal damage, Caroline Bonavia said that he had since moved in with his sister to an address in Canadian Way, Limes Park, Basingstoke, and was no longer associating with his friends in Tadley.

Judge Richard Onslow did not activate the suspended sentence, instead handing Cronin a 12-month community order, to run concurrently with a community order he is already subject to.

This includes attending a programme to tackle his drinking, a supervision requirement of 12 months, and a curfew, confining him to his sister’s address between the hours of 8pm and 5am for two months.

Speaking to Cronin, the judge said: “You need to go away and sort your life out.”