A WOMAN appeared at Guildford County Court on March 21 for breaching her anti-social behaviour injunction by begging at the Esso petrol station on the A31 Hogs Back.

Julie Ann Stevens, from Tongham, first received the injunction last year at Guildford County Court on October 6, which prohibited her from begging within 20 miles of her home address.

She admitted approaching a member of public for money at the petrol station on January 14.

The judge accepted Stevens was remorseful and accepted her assurances she would not breach the order again. Her sentence equalled time already spent in custody following her arrest, and was deemed as having been served.

The judge also imposed an additional prohibition, preventing Stevens from attending the Esso petrol station on the Hogs Back, “to prevent further harassment of the public.”

Joanna Grimshaw, from Surrey Police’s anti-social behaviour team, said: “Julie Ann Stevens is well-known in the area and it is thanks to the local community she was caught breaching her conditions.

“We need to send a strong message to those who seek to break their injunctions and we would urge members of the public to alert us to any further breaches in the future.”

Anti-social behaviour injunctions (ASBI) are civil cases and do not give the individual a criminal record. ASBIs were introduced in the 2014 ASB, Crime and Policing Bill as one of the replacements for ASBOs, and can tackle a diverse range of anti-social behaviour problems.