BREAKING NEWS Banged Faces of cowboy builder, bomb hoaxer, bully boyfriend and other criminals jailed….

This list shows the faces of the people who have spent Christmas behind bars after being locked up this month. Judges have sentenced a cowboy builder, drugs dealers and a bomb hoaxer for their terrifying crimes on the streets of Stoke-on-Trent and further afield in December.

The courts also heard about a repeat criminal who was imprisoned after stealing a mountain bike while robbing a hostel. Other distressing incidents included a violent lover who chewed off a portion of his partner’s ear and a juvenile rapist sentenced to life in prison.

StokeonTrentLive journalists cover the city’s courts five days a week; here are the guys who spent the holidays behind bars.

READ MORE: Royal Stoke bomb hoax caused ‘panic and mayhem’ as A&E was evacuated Bestoon Said, of Cobridge, informed worried hospital personnel that he had a bomb.

READ MORE: Thief took 906 library books and sold them for £30,000 because he ‘loved the buzz’ Despite having a well-paying career, John Nicolaides, 39, removed the books from libraries across the country and sold them on eBay and Amazon.

However, the 44-year-old would fail to show up for work and would be difficult to locate. When the victims finally manage to contact him, he fobbed them off with a slew of excuses for not starting the job.

Between 2012 and his arrest in 2021, he defrauded nine individuals out of a total of £20,497.26. Smith was sentenced to 19 months in prison at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.

A disgraced former police officer was sentenced to prison after violating many court regulations. Stephen Shaw used to work as a sergeant with West Midlands Police.

However, the 50-year-old was fired from his work for breaking the law, dragged before the courts, and is now imprisoned for 20 months for violating court terms set after admitting child grooming crimes.

Shaw was given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after avoiding jail for the child-sex offenses. However, he later downloaded and deleted Snapchat, deleted 1,143 hits from his search history, uninstalled Grindr, deleted WhatsApp chats, and used an alias name and login over a 16-month period. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

The complete story can be found here.

Despite losing close relatives to drugs, a man was busted distributing cocaine and cannabis. Kyle Mills became involved in the dark world of drugs after going into debt.

Stoke-on-The 31-year-old was rumbled when detectives stopped his car on Davenport Street in Middleport in 2021, according to Trent Crown Court. Messages on his phone revealed that he was dealing drugs.

A check of one address turned up a BB pistol, a machete, and more drugs. The defendant, of Swithin Street, Fenton, was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

The complete story can be found here.

A bomb hoaxer was imprisoned after forcing the evacuation of a hospital and the cancellation of appointments. Bestoon reportedly told NHS personnel at the Royal Stoke University Hospital, “Get the police, I have a bomb.”

The 41-year-old Iraqi national then knelt and put on a glove, claiming he was “getting it ready.” One staff member who heard his threat was so terrified that she worried she would never see her son again.

Said was detained for 473 days before being granted bail at the end of last year. He was thereafter subjected to an eight-hour curfew per day. Because of that, the judge stated that the two-and-a-half year sentence will inevitably result in Said’s quick release.

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