A man who admitted two breaches of the Covid-19 curfew and a string traffic offences was yesterday sent to the Drug treatment Court in a bid to tackle his problems.

Magistrates’ Court heard that Russell Dey, 53, phoned police during the lockdown on April 10 last year and asked for permission to leave his then Hamilton Parish home.

Police denied the request, but saw Dey on CCTV about an hour later driving on the wrong side of a road in Pembroke.

Officers waited for Dey at his home and charged him with a breach of curfew when he returned.

He told officers: “It is whatever it is.”

Dey was arrested again in the early hours of May 21 last year after officers saw him and another man on Court Street, Hamilton.

Dey told officers “we had something to do” when questioned.

He later explained to officers that he thought he was not in breach of curfew because he was in the doorway of a building.

Dey, of no fixed abode, also pleaded guilty to three separate charges of driving an unlicensed car, as well as driving without insurance and careless driving.

Alan Richards, for the Crown, told the court that Dey’s car rear-ended a vehicle on Cedar Avenue in Pembroke on May 15 last year.

Officers who attended the scene discovered that his car was unlicensed and that he had been charged earlier that day with driving an unlicensed car.

He was charged again with driving an unlicensed car and careless driving.

Dey was also charged on June 12 with driving an uninsured and unlicensed car.

Dey told the court that he had psychological problems and had been homeless for about nine months.

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo ordered a mental health assessment, a drug assessment and a social inquiry report.

Dey was remanded in custody until Drug Treatment Court today.

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