A florist from Milford Haven has been sent to jail after breaking the terms of a suspended prison sentence order handed to him in 2016.

Thirty-one-year-old Eric Evans (aka Reuben O’Dell) of Stratford Street, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday, charged with failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a community requirement of a suspended sentence order made by the Court on November 22, 2016.

Magistrates heard how the defendant had failed to keep in contact with his supervising probation officer as directed since August 29, of 2017.

Probation officer Julie Norman told magistrates that Mr. Evans had been given a 16 week suspended sentence back in 2016 for driving whilst disqualified and with no insurance.

She explained that part of the sentence involved the defendant complying with a 25 day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) and thinking skills programme, but he’d failed to keep in touch with his supervisor, and an arrest warrant had been in existence for the past 17 months, before he was brought to custody at Llanelli magistrates court over the weekend.

Defence solicitor Jonathan Webb told the court that Mr. Evans had managed to keep to the terms of the order until August of 2017, even when he was homeless.

“It even states in the probation officer’s report that he kept in contact through his mobile phone.

“It was accepted that he could not start the ‘thinking skills’ programme as his grandma was ill, and there was also an occasion where he himself couldn’t attend due to being in hospital, backed up by medical evidence,” explained Mr. Webb.

“He appears to have dropped off the radar but has been in Milford Haven and the surrounding area all this time, so whilst the warrant has been active, I’m not quite sure how he hasn’t been arrested?

“He hasn’t left the county in this time, and since 2016, hasn’t been in trouble. That element of the order has been a success, as he had turned his life around substantially, stayed out of trouble and even started up his own florist shop business in Hakin.

“On top of that he has been a carer for a family friend. It flies in the face of the breach report to say that the ‘chance of reoffending is high’ - if you send him to jail, it is going to put him right back!” he added.

On sentencing, magistrates said that they felt that they had no alternative but to activate the sentence imposed by the previous court, and Mr. Evans was given a 12 week custodial sentence.