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Probation for Peel teen caught with knife

Wed, 23 Sep 2015

A Peel teenager who was caught carrying a knife has been given "one more opportunity" to stay out of trouble.

19-year-old Billy Sumner was handed a two-year probation order after previously pleading guilty to possessing a prohibited article in public.

Police caught him with the sheathed four-inch blade after he ran away from them in Douglas on August 1st - he told officers he was carrying it to protect himself.

Sumner also admitted breaching a licensing order on June 8th and asked for two similar offences from August to be taken into consideration.

His advocate told the court it was "mindless offending" and there was no reasonable explanation for why he had the knife saying Sumner was "10/10 intoxicated at the time".

He said alcohol was at the root of his offending but Sumner had finally accepted he was an alcoholic after a "miserable state of denial".

Sentencing him Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes also restarted a suspended sentence which Sumner had previously broken, imposed a two-year licensing ban and fined him £175. 

She told him "You're a young man - I'm giving you the opportunity to make the most of your life". 

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