Dementia causes community service breach

Wednesday 24 July 2019

A man living with dementia in Guernsey has been given a suspended prison sentence after failing to turn up to his meetings with the Probation Service.

Tony Russo was previously given a 200 hour community service order for possessing nearly 300g of herbal cannabis and cultivating two cannabis plants.

With his "challenging nature" taken into account, it was decided Russo would complete his order by sketching and selling pet portraits, with all proceeds donated to charity.

As part of his order, the defendant was required to report to the Probation Service regularly. However - allegedly due to his condition - he failed to attend two of the scheduled meetings. As a result, the Community Service Team reported a breach in his order.

At that point, Russo had completed just 35 hours of community service.

Since then the defendant has completed a further 160 hours - taking the total up to 195 - but because the breach had already been reported the extra hours were considered 'unofficial'.

The court therefore could not count these hours towards Russo's community service order.

Judge Russel Finch decided to revoke the order and replace it with a nine month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

That means if Russo commits another crime within the next year, he will have to serve nine months in prison for his previous convictions as well as any further time for new charges.

Following on from his community service order, Russo has decided to continue sketching in aid of a local mental health charity.