THE chairman of a York political party has been convicted of causing criminal damage.

York Green Party chairman, Tom Franklin, was found guilty of causing criminal damage to a weapons manufacturing site and given a conditional discharge and compensation order of £241 by magistrates.

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Having pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing in April, 64-year-old Franklin, of Frazer Court, Clifton Without in York, appeared yesterday (September 7) at Wolverhampton Magistrates Court and was convicted of causing criminal damage at drone manufacturer UAV Systems' Elbit Systems plant in Shenstone, Staffordshire.

Franklin was accused of causing damage by spraying red paint on their forecourt on July 4 last year and the court heard he was one of a group who staged a protest, blocking the entrance to the plant.

Speaking after the case Franklin said: “I cannot stand by and allow these weapons to be made without trying to stop it.

"The damage we did was minimal as we simply sprayed red poster paint on the site.

“I do not apologise for closing Elbit, even if for only one day.”

It is not the first time Franklin has been before the courts, back in 2015, he and seven others were arrested at the Excel Centre, the site of the Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair.

On that occasion he lay in the path of a tank being delivered to the fair and was charged with obstructing the public highway, but district judge Angus Hamilton accepted an argument that they were trying to prevent greater crimes being committed at the event and acquitted them of obstructing the public highway.

In that case the District Judge found the group not guilty at a trial in April 2016, and accepted defence arguments that by blockading the road the activists were trying to stop more serious crimes - like human rights abuses by countries buying weapons at the fair.

More recently, in 2019, Franklin was arrested while taking part in a climate change protest in London.

He was arrested for a public order offence and held overnight at Leyton police station before being released the next morning without charge.

A spokesman for the Green Party said Mr Franklin was taking part in a peaceful demonstration in Parliament Square at the time of his arrest.