Maidstone Crown Court Sentencing Results

Thomas Coulton, 42, from Morecambe, was stopped in his lorry by Border Force officers at the Port of Dover’s Eastern Docks on 27 February 2019 after arriving on a ferry from France. Officers found two million counterfeit Mayfair cigarettes in the trailer. The duty evaded was £615,805. Investigations revealed the men travelled to Brittany in France to collect house move contents but detoured to Tamines, Belgium to pick up the cigarettes. Dashcam footage captured panicked conversation.

On Saturday 12 November 2022, Thomas McRaye and his brother George entered a gambling outlet in Week Street, Maidstone, drinking alcohol purchased elsewhere despite no alcohol licence. They refused to leave when asked by staff. A security guard intervened; they became abusive, pushed the guard. George pulled a large kitchen knife from his waistband and passed it to Thomas, who advanced slashing at the victim multiple times while George threw a bar stool. An associate intervened; they left towards King Street. Police arrested them near a taxi rank; knife recovered from rubbish bin. Thomas also charged with criminal damage for throwing a phone against a camera in his cell.

Terence Standage, a registered sex offender from Maidstone, secretly accessed almost 12,000 illegal images and videos of children, including more than 300 in the most serious category, using a neighbour’s Wi-Fi signal over a period of more than six years. Police investigated suspicious internet activity and attended his property on 16 January 2019, seizing devices including a memory stick and hard drive. Further offences identified included upskirting involving unknown females on a train and a bus.

Terrence Clover, a 78-year-old pensioner from Orchard Crescent, Wateringbury, was arrested in December 2018 after being accused of grooming and sexually abusing a young boy. The investigation uncovered a second victim and a pattern of grooming in which Clover gave gifts such as clothes and computer games to children, and promised one child they would inherit from his will. He provided a secret mobile phone to a victim for clandestine contact. He faced nine charges of child assault covering the period from September 2014 to December 2018.

Steven Landers, 56, of Elephant and Castle, attempted to smuggle four Heckler & Koch pistols and 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition into the UK via the Channel Tunnel in May. Border Force officers found the firearms concealed in a bag under the boot carpet of his BMW at the Coquelles terminal. He was arrested on the spot and claimed someone must have put the guns there without his knowledge. He could not recall the hotel they stayed at when rain forced them to stop. The court did not believe his alibi and convicted him.

On 12 May 2021, Stuart Powell, 34, from Kemsley near Sittingbourne, who only held a provisional driving licence, was using his mobile phone while driving his wife’s car. He pulled out in front of a motorcyclist on the B2005 Swale Way, Kemsley, near the Milton Creek fishing lake, causing fatal injuries to the motorcyclist and serious injuries to the pillion passenger. He fled the scene despite being told to remain by Police Community Support Officers, contacted his partner, and handed himself in the next day, initially lying about his phone which he had factory reset.

Steven Mulroe, 41, of Battersea, was involved with Steven Landers in an attempt to smuggle four Heckler & Koch pistols and 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition into the UK through the Channel Tunnel in May. The weapons were found hidden in Landers' car at Coquelles. Mulroe was arrested on the spot and, like Landers, claimed ignorance of the firearms. The court handed down the same prison term as his co-defendant.

Steven Scott, aged 46, of Pudding Lane, Maidstone, abused a child in Sheerness in September 2020 while left in a position of trust and alone with the victim. The abuse was reported to Kent Police on 5 December 2020 and he was arrested the following day.

Steven Smith was convicted of sexual communication with a child, causing or inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and making indecent photographs of children.

On 28 February, Traian Joja was involved in a parking dispute at Medway Services that escalated into violence. He pinned one victim against his lorry, holding him by the throat, while his son Bogdan and Simion Rafaila assaulted the man. The victims suffered broken bones and bruising and were treated at hospital.

Tristan Goodwin from Chatham conspired with Angel Fuller over a two-year period to target young children for sexual abuse. Between May 2021 and January 2022, he committed sex offences with a child on at least three occasions after Fuller arranged meetings. Later that year, Fuller took another child to meet him and he raped them. Goodwin had groomed two children in 2020 via social media, persuading them to send indecent images before meeting and sexually assaulting them. He paid Fuller to introduce him to child victims. Charged with raping a child, two counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, two counts of paying for the sexual services of a child and possession of indecent images.

During the evening of 19 May 2020, Tyler Mitchell drove to the Fant area intent on setting fire to a car belonging to a person he had argued with previously. He brought with him a bottle of white spirit, some tissue paper and a lighter. Having parked his car, he walked to the victim’s address where a Volkswagen was parked on a driveway alongside two other cars. Mitchell poured some white spirit onto the ground next to one of the tyres and set light to it using the tissue paper, before running from the scene. The bottle of white spirit was discarded in a bin and Mitchell left the fire to spread to the three cars on the driveway, a tree and two rubbish bins. The blaze was extinguished by fire crews and a subsequent investigation by Kent Police identified Mitchell’s car and CCTV footage. He was arrested the following day and admitted responsibility.

William Adams absconded from a prison in Sussex on 14 July 2021. On Tuesday 23 November 2021, he was seen driving a van suspiciously on the A249 near the Stockbury roundabout. Officers requested him to stop at 11.55pm believing he was using false number plates, but he led them on a 10-minute police pursuit. During the pursuit, three police cars were damaged by his van, with one knocked off the road into a collision with a tree where it caught fire. Officers brought the van to a controlled stop on the Key Street roundabout, and Adams attempted to run but was apprehended and arrested.

Between October 2022 and April 2023, Michael McTigue and William French stole property including golf equipment, tools and an antique violin valued at more than £10,000 from vehicles left in car parks in areas including Hildenborough and Sevenoaks in west Kent. They targeted multi-story car parks or private complexes, smashing windows to steal high value items. French contacted a specialist musical instrument shop in Oxford shortly after the violin theft and sold it there on 18 April. Arrested on 12 May during investigation by West Kent Victim Based Crime Team.

On 19 April 2025 at around 8.15pm, William Hutchings, 31, was seen by police performing a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre in a silver Ford Fiesta on London Road towards Amherst Hill. A pursuit followed, during which he drove at excessive speed, on hatched markings, and on the wrong side of the road. On the A25 Westerham Road near Sevenoaks, he collided head-on with a Land Rover Defender. The occupants of the Land Rover suffered minor injuries, while Hutchings sustained severe injuries. He was arrested after hospital treatment and later charged with dangerous driving.

Charlie Saunter, William O’Brien, and Kai Haruna subjected their victim to a prolonged and barbaric assault lasting over six hours in a Gravesend flat on London Road on the evening of 5 July 2020. The victim was repeatedly cut with knives, burned with boiling salt water and a home-made flame thrower, subjected to dog bites and genital mutilation. Haruna jumped on the victim’s chest until he passed out. The attack was linked to a grievance involving money and/or drug supply. The victim could not escape due to threats, duration, and the dog.

Butterworth, along with Chay Hart, attacked a vulnerable teenager with autism on Greggs Wood Road, Tunbridge Wells, on 19 January 2019. After the teen asked 'What are you looking at?', the pair threatened him. Later, Butterworth chased the teen, threw him to the ground, and began punching him. Hart joined in and both men kicked the defenceless victim as he curled up, causing a fractured neck, broken tooth, and severe facial bruising.

On November 25 last year, Zvonko Tomisa, a 58-year-old lorry driver from Videovec, Croatia, was travelling at approximately 55mph on the M20 in Kent while engaged in a video call with his wife. He crashed into the victim’s stationary Nissan Qashqai in traffic, causing injuries described as 'not survivable'. Signs had instructed drivers to slow to 50mph more than 1.5 miles earlier due to traffic. Tomisa had multiple calls and messages on his phone in the preceding hour and attempted to brake only one second before impact.

On 23 May 2023, Xhojs Bilali travelled to Southborough in a Volvo S40 intending to supply class A drugs (cocaine) to local users. He was spotted parked in Victoria Road by proactive officers, who detained him due to his behaviour and searched the vehicle, locating 27 cocaine deals in a drawstring bag, £70 in cash and a mobile phone.

William Reader, previously of Nursey Grove, Gravesend, aged 26, was arrested on 10 February 2022 for repeated violence and threats towards a woman and her family between December 2021 and January 2022. Offences included throwing bricks through windows, slashing car tyres, making repeated threats to harm and kill, punching two female victims and a witness who intervened. During a remand hearing at Medway Magistrates’ Court on 12 February 2022, he assaulted a detention officer, stole keys and escaped. He was recaptured two days later in Stockton-on-Tees.