A DJ who set fire to his neighbour’s fence in Pembroke Dock whilst smoking cannabis and playing his guitar in the garden during the early hours has been fined in court.
Thirty-four-year-old Matthew Hearne, of Clarence Street, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to charges of causing criminal damage and being in possession of 8.5 grammes of cannabis.
Prosecutor Ellie Morgan told the court that Mr. Hearne had been DJing at El Rio nightclub in Haverfordwest, before going back home at around 3.30 am on April 8.
“He was heating the cannabis oil and smoking a joint whilst playing his guitar in the garden at around 4 am,” she said.
“Mr. Hearne then lit a fire in his garden to burn waste as he had missed the recycling collection.
“He removed wooden panels from the fence of his 85-year-old neighbour June Price and put them on top of the fire at about 5.30 am.
“At 6.40 am, Mrs. Price’s son saw Mr. Hearne burning the fence panels, and when the police arrived shortly after, they could see through a hole in the fence the defendant putting out the fire with a garden hose,” continued Ms Morgan.
Mr. Hearne told officers in an interview, ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s only criminal damage. I’ll take the offence, only a slap on the wrist’.
He also told officers, ‘I greatly regret burning the fence, but they are making out I ripped the panels off, but they were down anyway’.
Defence solicitor Mark Layton said that due to Mr. Hearne’s illness, he doesn’t have a concept of time.
“He is not a well man. The fence panelling was in a poor state of repair and had fallen down onto his property, but he does accept that it was not his to burn,” Mr. Layton told the court.
Magistrates fined Mr. Hearne £80 for each offence, and ordered him to pay a £30 victim surcharge, and compensation of £250 to his neighbour.
They also ordered for the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.