Time’s up for Kettering criminal Dominic Watts who breached two suspended prison sentences
A criminal who has repeatedly ignored suspended prison sentences has been sent to jail for a year.
Dominic Stephen Michael Watts, formerly of Kettering and now of Latimer Close, Burton Latimer, has been before the courts on numerous occasions during the past few years but has avoided jail on several occasions.
Now he’s behind bars after being caught driving while disqualified twice more.
In June this year the 30-year-old was again given a suspended sentence of 16 weeks after being caught driving while suspended and without insurance in Kirby Street, Barton Seagrave, in May. He was also ordered to undertake 100 hours of community service and banned from driving for two more years.
But it has now emerged he has since been caught a further two times behind the wheel while banned. One of those offences took place in late February in Albert Street, Kettering. A second was in Fir Tree Walk, Northampton, in May.
Watts appeared before magistrates on October 9 and admitted two counts of driving while disqualified and two of driving without insurance. He also admitted being in breach of a suspended sentence and failing to attend his unpaid work appointments.
He was given 52 weeks in prison after magistrates said he had a flagrant disregard for court orders, including the activation of his 16 week sentence from June. He was also banned from driving for 12 more months and ordered to pay £352 costs.
In January this year the former landlord of The Rising Sun in Kettering told this newspaper that a suspended sentence handed to Watts was ‘a joke’. Watts assaulted Dave Cooper in the pub after he tried to break up a fight. He had to be stitched back up in hospital but Watts was given just 24 weeks in prison, suspended for two years.
Back in 2022, Watts was jailed for 14 weeks for offences including driving without a licence and insurance, and cocaine possession.