A SHOTTON man has been sent to prison after brandishing a hammer during a burglary at his mother's home.

Oliver Hoemig, 23, of Salisbury Street, was also breaching the terms of a restraining order when he entered the property on Strand Park on September 29.

Rhian Jackson, prosecuting, told Mold Magistrates Court how Hoemig had been handed the 12 month order on March 19 following an assault on his step-father, Stephen Jones. The terms of that order prohibited Hoemig from contacting Mr Jones and also attending the Strand Park home which he shares with the defendant’s mother and brother.

Ms Jackson said it was just before 9pm when Hoemig entered the property through the rear door and made his way upstairs, at which point his mother shouted to her husband that “he’s got a hammer”.

He was confronted by Mr Jones, who managed to remove the long, chrome clawed hammer, from the right hand of his step-son before he fled from the house. When the couple realised he had taken a laptop from one of the rooms upstairs, Mr Jones chased after him but the item was never recovered, with Hoemig later admitting to stealing out of desperation and because he needed money to feed his drug habit.

Ms Jackson had earlier told the court that Hoemig had already breached the terms of the order on two other occasions, including on July 12 when he turned up at the address and shouted abuse at his brother, who was inside, through a kitchen window. His brother said in a police statement how Hoemig had been punching a window and kicking the front door so hard that he believed it was “coming in”.

When Hoemig was finally arrested after the burglary and breach in September, he threw food at the walls of a cell in the police custody suite at Llay, which had to be cleaned at the cost of £70.

Brian Cross, defending, said Hoemig had issues with his mental health and had been introduced to drugs while in prison, but was now clean and wanted to prove he could work with the probation services.

Mr Cross added how the family accepted the threats made by Hoemig had always been empty.

However, the probation services told District Judge Gwyn Jones that Hoemig had been given every opportunity to work with them to resolve his problems, but he had shown little interest and failed to attend his scheduled appointments.

The District Judge told Hoemig he had shown a flagrant disregard for the order when breaching it on three occasions.

He said: “You say probation are not helping you. How can they help you if you are not prepared to help yourself?

“It seems you cannot be bothered to attend scheduled appointments and have a disregard for your own mental health. They can do no more.

“They’ve bent over backwards to help you and you’ve thrown it back in their face.”

He sentenced Hoemig to serve 26 weeks for the restraining order breach, 26 weeks for the burglary, which will be served consecutively, with a further 26 weeks for breaching the terms of a community order to be served concurrently, meaning a total sentence of 52 weeks in prison.

The restraining order was also extended to a period of five years and Hoemig will also be subject to a 12 month post release supervision order.