Council crackdown on 'lazy' dog owners (From South Wales Guardian)

Council crackdown on 'lazy' dog owners

6:30am Thursday 9th August 2012 in News

SHOCKED staff in a Llanelli store watched in amazement as an Ammanford couple began fighting in front of the pharmacy counter, town magistrates were told.

Jemma Louise Williams was seen to grab Jason Henry Charles Wood by the hair and kick him in the groin after he strode into the shop, claiming she had taken his keys, the bench heard.

The couple were so aggressive that staff, fearing for their own safety as well as their customers’, called police, who found the defendants under the influence of drink or drugs, said Ellie Morgan, prosecuting.

Williams, aged 25, of 25 Penybanc Road, and Wood, aged 36, of the same address, were each given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 costs after pleading guilty to a public order offence.

Both were said to have been longtime users of heroin and meow meow, but were trying to turn their lives around.

Ms Morgan said trouble flared at the Co-op pharmacy in Llanelli’s Station Road at 2pm on May 17 when Williams, who had called in to pick up her daily prescription, shouted for staff to call police as she had been assaulted by Wood.

“Lucy Jones, a store worker, and Mr Simran Sura, the pharmacist, came from out the back to see the performance,” she recounted.

“Mr Wood came in and asked her where his keys were. When she said she didn’t have them he took her credit card that was on the counter and said he wouldn’t give it back until she gave him his keys.”

Ms Morgan said at this point the couple began fighting.

“When interviewed they acknowledged it must have been a frightening experience for people there and said they’d go back the next day to apologise,” she added.

Andrew Isaac, in mitigation, said the couple were “throroughly ashamed” of their behaviour.