A Tenby man has been sent to prison for phoning a woman two days after being prohibited from doing so by a court order.

Daniel Preston phoned his victim on Sunday, September 10. Two days earlier - Friday, September 8 - Llanelli magistrates had imposed a restraining order which prevented Preston from having any form of contact with her.

“And two days later, he breached it,” Crown Prosecutor Sian Vaughan told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

Ms Vaughan went on to say that as soon as the victim recognised the defendant’s phone number, she chose not to answer the phone.

But she rang him back a few minutes later to inform him that she wasn’t at the property.

“She didn’t want him turning up at her house because she was terrified,” said Ms Vaughan.

Preston, of Newall Hill, Tenby, pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order.

He was legally represented in court by Mr Michael Kelleher who told magistrates that the sole purpose of the phone call was to retrieve all his belongings from his partner’s property.

“Everything he had in the world was with the victim,” he said.

“After being given the retraining order by Llanelli court, he phoned the police on September 10 and asked if they would go and collect his stuff because he knew he couldn’t go anywhere near there.

“Then he very foolishly rang [his partner] to give her a heads-up that the police were going to call with her to collect his things.

“But he never made contact with her.”

Mr Kelleher went on to say that minutes later, a police car pulled up containing his gear which they had collected from his partner’s home.

“And then they arrested him for breaching the restraining order,” he said. “The simple fact is that he didn’t appreciate the seriousness of what he was doing.

“In his own mind, he was simply trying to tell her that police officers would be knocking on her door for his stuff.”

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But probation officer Julie Norman stressed to magistrates the seriousness of the situation.

“The probation service is concerned about this incident,” she said. “This is the third offence that he has committed against the same victim.”

After listening to the facts surrounding the case, magistrates retired for three-quarters of an hour to consider their verdict.

When they returned, they sentenced Preston to 20 weeks in custody.

“This reflects the serious nature of the offence, your failure to comply and the fact that you have a significant issue that needs to be addressed,” said presiding magistrate, Dr Iain Robertson-Steele.

Preston was also ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £154 surcharge.