Nuisance caught in Sunderland Marks and Spencer was given ten minutes to leave town

A public nuisance given 10 minutes to leave town by police failed to beat the clock, a court heard.

Christopher Tschida, 40, was spotted after the deadline still within the boundaries of his personally proscribed Sunderland city centre no-go zone.

Tschida, of Sunderland’s central Borough Road, was barred from certain streets under a section 35 antisocial behaviour direction order.

Such orders are issued to prohibit troublesome offenders from accessing outlined parts of a town centre or other area.

He was seen in the city at around 1.15pm on Tuesday, March 26, prosecutor Ruth Foster told magistrates in South Tyneside.

She added: “Officers attended Marks & Spencer due to a complaint of an intoxicated male in the store.

“The police have removed him from the store. He went to pick up a can of alcohol.

“At 1.17pm, he was seen again and given 10 minutes to leave the area by the fastest possible route. He was given a map of the area.

“At 1.33pm, an officer noticed that the defendant had made his way to Ray’s Convenience Store.

“That was within the area of the map and placed him in breach of the notice.”

Tschida pleaded guilty in his absence to a charge of failing to comply with a section 35 direction excluding a person from an area.

The court heard he is currently on remand in prison awaiting sentence for an unspecified charge.

Jason Smith, defending, said there was some dispute as to whether Tschida was inside the out-of-bounds zone but his client wished to plead guilty.

He added: “I’m asking for a conditional discharge. It looks like he’s attempted to get to the edge of the map.”

Magistrates sentenced Tschida to an absolute discharge. There were no court costs.