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Knottingley: Jail for laser pen police helicopter man
A mechanic who shone a laser pen at a police helicopter from the forecourt of his garage has been jailed.
Allan Ponsonby, 37, believed West Yorkshire Police were harassing him and "playing mind games" by constantly following him.
Ponsonby told a court yesterday how he thought he was being constantly watched by the helicopter which hovered over his business and home up to seven days a week.
He also claimed that on one occasion he crashed into a tree as the helicopter tried to run him off the road by shining bright lights at him as he drove his car.
But a judge yesterday dismissed his claims as "exaggeration" as he sent him to prison for four months.
Leeds Crown Court was told how officers in the police helicopter were temporarily blinded when Ponsonby shined a green laser pen at the aircraft as it was deployed to reports of a firearms incident.
Business
The court was shown camera footage of Ponsonby shining the light at the helicopter and making a two-fingered gesture from outside Autosave on Wakefield Road, Pontefract, on March 21 this year.
He was arrested 15 minutes later at his business where officers found the laser pen.
When asked by police whether he thought his actions were dangerous, he replied: "Do you think they are right to come and perv through your bathroom window?"
He refused to answer questions in interview, claiming he wanted to give his response in court.
Ponsonby, of Marsh End, Knottingley, pleaded guilty to endangering an aircraft.
But he claimed he had aimed the laser at the aircraft to point it out to one of his customers to prove he was being watched.
The mechanic said he had been closely watched for more than 12 months, ever since he had applied for a firearms licence.
Ponsonby told the court: "I did not fully understand what they were trying to do.
"They were trying to play mind games.
"It gets you down. You get sick of seeing it and hearing it. You get depressed and you are thinking 'why are they doing it?'.
He added: "It makes you think how much it would cost to run one of those things and you imagine it's not cheap."
Ponsonby claimed several police helicopters had been used to pursue him.
But when judge Peter Collier told him that the force only had one aircraft, Ponsonby replied: "I have seen a black one and then one with these stubby type wings on it. Not really wings as such, but they do stick out either side of it."
Nicholas De La Pour, for Ponsonby, mitigating, said Ponsonby had a long standing concern that he has been under close observation by the police helicopter.
He said: "This defendant genuinely did believe that he was the subject of intrusive attention by the police.
"It does not, in my submission, need to be in fact true that he was, merely that it was a significant preoccupation for him in the 12 months leading up to the incident."
Jailing him, the Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said: "What he did was wholly unacceptable and highly dangerous that night."
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
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