Football thug back in court for breaching banning order
A Black Country football fan who was banned from attending games for five years has been hauled in front of the courts again after he was caught trying to attend a game with a smoke grenade.
Wolves fan Benjamin Richardson, 28, of Pebble Close, Stourbridge, was caught trying to attend a game between Stourbridge and Shrewsbury in July -
.
He was spotted by West Midlands Police football unit officers and was arrested at the turnstiles for trying to breach his banning order. A subsequent search found he had a smoke grenade with him.
Richardson denied the offences but was convicted after a trial at Dudley Magistrates Court. He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of community work and hit with a court bill of £640.
PC Martin Portman, from the force's football unit, said: "A ban is there for a reason and this should serve as a strong warning that anyone who tries to breach their FBO will be caught and face further punishment.
"The orders are not only given to people convicted of violence or disorder at matches but anyone who commits a football-related offence such as fighting or damaging property in a pub whilst watching a match."
Richardson was given the FBO after being involved in as many as 20 football related disorders between 2008 and 2015, most of them Wolves matches.
Having been given the order back in March, it meant he was unable to travel to Euro 2016 in France.
Back in 2014 Richardson was among half a dozen fans cleared of affray following disorder at Wolves' match against Leeds in February that year.
Two years prior to that he was forced to leave the game between Poland and England in Warsaw after trying to break into the ground.
