Dog owner smashed wrong window

3:12pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

Comments (2)   Have your say »

Man's best friend' got his drunken owner into trouble with the law after a drinking binge came to a bizarre end.

Blackburn magistrates heard a car owner who went out to confront Phillip Wayne Lawrie after seeing him attack his car found a Staffordshire bull terrier inside a neighbour's car which had also been damaged. "The neighbour was told that someone had broken into his car and left a dog," said Catherine Allan, prosecuting.

But Basharat Ditta, defending, said his client had no intention of leaving his dog anywhere.

"He was very drunk, but my client's recollection is of hearing his dog barking from inside a car but he had no idea how it got there," said Mr Ditta. "He initially broke the window of the wrong car as he tried to retrieve his pet. It is all very bizarre but my client accepts causing the damage."

Lawrie, 24, of Steiner Street, Accrington, pleaded guilty to causing £300 worth of damage to a car belonging to Shaun Cassidy and £920 worth of damage to another car.

Miss Allan said that when he was interviewed Lawrie said he didn't remember very much because he had drunk 10 pints of lager and half a bottle of cider.

Mr Ditta said Lawrie had sought solace in drink after the break down of a relationship.

"Everything else is a little hazy," said Mr Ditta. "He remembers walking down the street with his dog and then it was inside a car barking. He can't work out how it got there.

"In his drunken state he broke the window of the wrong car as he tried to release his dog," he added.