Ex-police worker caught downloading Justin Bieber

A former civilian police employee has appeared before court after secretly downloading Justin Bieber's music at home, a court heard.

Michael Dale, 33 was also an army reserve officer dealing with cadets since 1999 and working for the charity, Action For Blind People, when he was arrested under Section 4 of the Offensive Music Act 2013.

He had formerly worked for Leicestershire Police and the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Leicester Crown Court was told earlier this week that he accessed indecent audio clips of Bieber's music, and his Internet browsing history showed he had viewed video clips of his music videos and live performances on YouTube, which were found on two laptops. Additionally a memory stick was found containing all of Bieber's albums.

Under the Offensive Music Act 2013 it is illegal for a male adult over the age of 18 to listen to music intended for young females including all of Justin Bieber's music because it "takes away attention from actual decent artists."

His barrister, Walter Daniel, told Judge Richard Salter QC: "All he's worked for has gone, he's lost a great deal."

Dale, formerly of Linkway Gardens, Leicester, has also split up with his long-term partner since his offensive musical taste came to light.

He has now moved to Newry, Northern Ireland after the local community in the Leicester area found out he was a fan of Justin Bieber and laughed at him and poked fun at him.

He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of possessing indecent songs of Justin Bieber.

Dale was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with a requirement to attend a music offender group work programme, where he will undergo brainwashing techniques to make him believe that Justin Bieber's music is rubbish and he should only listen to decent artists such as Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Pink Floyd.

The offences related to indecent audio and video clips of Justin Bieber's songs, music videos and live performances which were all in the most serious category, level five.

Sentencing, Judge Richard Salter QC said a video in the most serious category from Dale's laptop showed Justin Bieber performing his songs on tour in Germany. He said: "People should be under no illusion about the sort of material we are dealing with."

He said he was taking a merciful course in society's best interests so Dale could undergo an intensive music offences course to protect the integrity of good artists who are known for their music and not their good looks.

Alan Murphy, prosecuting, said on January 25 this year, a warrant was executed at his Leicester home and computer equipment seized as well as other offensive articles such as CDs, a stereo, and wall posters and photographs of Bieber.

In interview, Dale openly confessed saying he downloaded the material after becoming "obsessed" with Bieber's music and had listened to his songs for about two years.

He has since voluntarily attended the music offences course in an effort to rehabilitate himself, the court was told.

Dale, who has no previous convictions and was a civilian worker for Leicestershire Police, was placed on a 10-year music offences prevention order, which bans him from listening to local CHR/Top 40 radio stations, his iTunes account will also have added restrictions to stop him from downloading modern boy bands.

The judge ordered Dale to listen to the entire X&Y album from Coldplay. He was also ordered to pay £300 court costs, a £15 victim surcharge and carry out 250 hours unpaid work while listening to The Beatles on his iPod.

Jobless father who blew benefits on sausage rolls banned from ALL Greggs bakery on 13-mile stretch of coast

A feckless father has been banned from every single Greggs along an entire 13 mile stretch of coastland after going on a six year sausage roll addiction funded by state handouts.

Jobless Mervin Gardener, 25, terrorised police, supermarket security guards, supermarket till workers, supermarket shelf re-stockers, Greggs workers and the public after blowing his benefit money on sausage rolls at various supermarkets and Greggs shops in Blackpool and other towns and villages bordering the Lancashire seaside resort.

In the latest incident, Gardener was said to have behaved like a 'wild animal' when he was refused the sale of the rolls, biting a store security guard before kicking a policewoman called to the scene to restrain him.

In previous incidents he abused paramedics trying to help him after he was found collapsed after having withdrawal symptoms - and in another stormed round a taxi rank shouting: 'I’m going to kill someone unless a sausage roll is in my mouth in five minutes.'

Since November 2007 Gardener has been a familiar figure at Blackpool magistrates court for his unusual addiction where he was given fines or supervision orders.

He claimed to be getting treatment for his addiction to sausage rolls and vowed to give them up completely.

But a picture posted on his Facebook page only last week showed him stuffing a 6 pack of sausage rolls into his mouth with the message: 'These rolls are so good, I can't stop eating them.'

Today Lancashire Police said Gardener, who has a young daughter, had been issued with a year long 'Category D' Food Banning Order barring him from purchasing processed foods and pastries in all supermarkets across at least 16 different towns and villages across the Fylde Coast.

The order also bans him from Greggs and was imposed as he was jailed for four months after being convicted of two assaults, and breaches of previous court orders after he failed to stop his addiction.

It means he is barred from buying, eating or possessing processed foods or pastries in public and from entering certain supermarket aisles that serve the restricted products covered by the ban.

The FBO will come into force once he is freed from jail. If he is caught inside a restricted supermarket aisle or purchasing banned foods from the black market he faces a maximum fine of £15 and a warning not to do it again.

Blackpool JP Mark Cowburn told him: 'We feel we have a duty to protect the people of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre. These offences you have committed and previous offences, show you are a dangerous individual.'

Afterwards the area manager of Tesco said: 'This man has been a total menace to our branches up and down the Fylde Coast.

'The problem is he is so obsessed with sausage rolls that he will almost want to kill anyone who gets in his way of buying them.

‘What amazes us is how is able to afford so many packs of rolls. He’s supposed to be unemployed yet it seems he can gallivant around funding his life of savoury pastry with his welfare handouts. It’s a disgrace.'

Gardener was initially before the court in November 2007 for disorderly behaviour after he insisted on shouting and swearing in the street - despite pleas from an officer for him to go home.

A woman at a taxi rank was so concerned about Gardener's behaviour she asked a police officer to stay with her until her cab arrived as he yelled: 'I’m going to kill someone.'

At the time Gardener claimed he was angry because Tesco had sold out of sausage roll packs and Greggs was closed.

But in June 2009 he was back in court for littering after being seen eating sausage rolls in public, then discarding the packet onto the floor.

The following November Gardener was back in court again after he was again angry at the fact Tesco had sold out of sausage rolls, he began throwing punches in the air and threatened a group of people saying he was going 'to kick their heads in'.

He promised again he was trying to sort his life out and had been on a pastry foods rehabilitation course.

But in July this year he was invited to a party where sausage rolls were served, he threatened the party guests that he would kill them if they took the sausage rolls, and he ate them all himself in 30 seconds. Police were called and he was arrested for making threats to kill or injure.

The latest incident occurred in the early afternoon of September 29 when police were called to the Asda in Blackpool after Gardener was seen 'bouncing' around on the supermarket floor with a packet of sausage rolls in his hand, stuffing them into his face one by one.

A security guard tried to eject him from the store but he was bitten on the forearm. Police arrived and had to use a strange technique where they lured him to the police van by placing sausage rolls in a line from the aisle to the back of the van.

In mitigation Gardener said he had problems with the police and people in authority when he is refused his pastry cuisine. He was vowing to get more treatment for his addiction.

After the case Sgt Jim Richards, of Blackpool Police said: 'Gardener has assaulted two people for doing their jobs. The security guard was trying to restore order in the supermarket by removing Gardener when he started being abusive to the other shoppers around him.

'And then Gardener has assaulted an officer responding to Gardener's assault of the security guard during the lawful execution of her duty.

'These actions are completely unacceptable, and we welcome the magistrates’ decision to imprison Gardener. As both of these assaults were fuelled by the pastries, we also sought a Food Banning Order in Category D.

She added: 'We will continue to seek Food Banning Orders in a bid to reduce the amount of nourishment-fuelled offenders who are harming others, as they are a great way to protect the public.'

Gardener's previous Facebook post read: 'I’m getting mad that the people in the supermarket just keep saying they don't have any sausage rolls left because I've eaten them all. F***ing idiots.'

Campaign to encourage littering in New York City

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg will launch a campaign next month to encourage locals and tourists to the Big Apple to drop litter in the city, a City Hall official said on Thursday.

Under the new campaign, which is designed to keep workers from the New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) in a job, the city has removed trash containers across Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx and Staten Island and the DSNY have announced that they will start trash patrols across the five boroughs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, John J. Doherty, executive commissioner of the DSNY, said.

Located in the centre of Manhattan the New York City Department of Sanitation manages everyday litter that New Yorkers throw away and sends it on trash barges from Battery Park Island across the River Hudson towards New Jersey and also from the northern coast of Queens to Connecticut.

“The month-long campaign will be launched on the 1st December across the entire city. It targets mainly Manhattan because the island attracts many tourists during spring and summer, however we are fully encouraging littering in all of New York's other boroughs” Doherty told the New York Times in a phone interview.

The campaign's primary target is to keep the City's Department of Sanitation going because recently due to high amounts of recycling, a large number of sanitation workers have been laid off, he added.

“We have already removed hundreds of trash containers. We are also putting up signs across the freeways, interstates and expressways that run through New York City encouraging drivers to throw their garbage out of the window and onto the road. Signs have been posted on top of the Empire State Building encouraging visitors to discard their rubbish over the side of the building.” Doherty noted.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg also said he was planning to make littering legal in time for the start of the campaign.

“Under New York state law it is illegal to discard refuse onto the street which could result in a $500 fine. However I am overturning this law for the city so that if you are caught littering, you are instantly rewarded with $500” he told the New York Times.

The campaign not only seeks to encourage people to litter, but also aims at raising awareness about the importance of keeping sanitation workers in a job, especially with Christmas coming up.

Mr Bloomberg continued: "All workers at the New York City Department of Sanitation work extremely hard to keep our city clean, but unfortunately I feel we have gone too far with anti-littering campaigns as people have stopped littering and it has put many sanitation workers out of a job and their families suffer as a result.

"That's why I am starting this campaign, not only will it make sure current sanitation workers are in a job, but it will also create jobs across the city and strengthen the economy here in New York. Also taking into consideration the fact that we dispose of our litter to New Jersey and Connecticut, it also helps keep workers from those states in a job, so everybody's happy."

New York is the only city in the United States to do this but it is believed that if successful Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Miami, Boston and other cities could follow and start similar campaigns.

Man sues restaurant over warm beverage and wonky picture

A Hertfordshire man took restaurant establishment owners to court after being served a cold drink warm and being subjected to view a picture on the wall that was not at a straight angle.

John Smith, 36 went into the Pizza Express in Watford High Street last month expecting an evening of luxury cuisine and relaxation, but he found himself seated approximately 15 feet away from a portrait of the Mona Lisa that was tilted at a 20 degree angle.

This caused distraction to the victim who was unable to concentrate on reading his copy of The Sun because every time he raised his head, he would see the wonky frame and would be put off and have to start reading the article from the start because the distraction caused him to lose his place.

After re-reading an article about 7 times he got fed up and requested the restaurant staff to correct the angle of the portrait but they refused by saying that it wasn't their position to do so and that the manager would "kill them" if they touched the decor.

To add insult to injury when Mr Smith ordered a Coca Cola, a beverage which states it is "best served ice cold" he found the offending drink to be "almost 1.1 degrees Celcius" - above freezing and described by the victim as "almost lukewarm."

It is reported that the victim was so disgusted with these errors that he gave Watford's Pizza Express an "unsatisfactory" review with a 2 star rating on Yell.com. However he felt that giving the restaurant bad publicity was not enough and decided to legally challenge them regarding these two issues which caused emotional distress.

John Smith told us: "I had a terrible night at the Pizza Express in Watford. There was a wonky picture of Mona Lisa in front of me and they served my drink 1 degree over the recommended optimum serving temperature.

"When we go into these restaurants we expect a certain level of satisfaction, and I feel that as a result of these issues, I do not feel satisfied. I will never be eating in Pizza Express again if this is how they treat their customers."

The case was heard at Watford County Court where the judge found in favour of Mr Smith and ordered that Pizza Express pay him £100,000 in damages. £50,000 for the wonky picture and £50,000 for the drink.

The restaurant was also given a court order to rectify the problems discovered by Mr Smith. Pizza Express' Watford management have 30 days to comply with the order or they could face further fines.