'Infantile' man who stole police officer bike given community order
6 August 2020, 16:57
PCSO's bike stolen as he tries to disperse yobs ignoring lockdown
A man who stole a police officer's bike during lockdown has been sentenced and dubbed "infantile".
Hassan Ali, 23, was one of up to 30 men seen playing a game of cricket on Godolphin Playing Fields in Slough on May 4.
Footage of Ali taking the bike belonging to PCSO William Jones went viral.
People in the video can be heard saying, "Daddy pig says go home', and 'we are making you cry,' as the officer tried to explain to them that they couldn't congregate due to social distancing measures.
The incident left PCSO Jones "humiliated and embarrassed", Reading Magistrates Court heard.
District Judger Samuel Gooze said: "The only person, in my view, who should be humiliated and embarrassed is yourself. Your behaviour was infantile to say the least."
Ali was given a six-week community order, ordered to pay £85 and has been given an overnight curfew.
The officer was responding to reports of a group of males playing cricket at the park.
When he approached the mob, believed to have been aged in their late teens and mid-twenties, they began arguing with him, using intimidating and threatening language, before one of them made off with the bike.
The officer called for backup, which had been deployed, but the men fled the scene leaving the PCSO’s bike behind.
