A man has been jailed for the second time for deliberately urinating on police property.

Through his defence barrister Rachel Webster, Zach John Bowes denied that he had relieved himself in a police van as a form of revenge for being arrested on suspicion of breaching a restraining order.

He claimed he couldn’t wait until he could use a toilet in a police custody suite.

But Judge Simon Hickey said it was the second time in three months Bowes was before a court for damaging police property by urinating on it.

“It was clearly deliberate. This is something you do as a habit,” he told Bowes.

He jailed Bowes for a month for criminal damage to the police van, to be served after he finishes a six-month prison sentence for breaching a restraining order.

In August, Hull magistrates jailed Bowes for three weeks for causing criminal damage by urinating on the floor in a police custody suite, to be served after he finished a 10-week prison sentence for using threatening words or behaviour towards a pub landlady in the coastal city.

Bowes, 26, of The Avenue, Filey, pleaded guilty to all offences.

Rachael Landin, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said police arrested Bowes with “extreme difficulty” on June 2 after he tried to run away from them. He put up such a struggle they had to get him on the ground and he would not submit to them. He was also abusive.

Eventually they got him to a police van and he told them he would urinate on the van floor, claiming he could not wait until he reached the police station and he did urinate, despite being told to wait. 

“(He was claiming he was) a 27-year-old man without medical issues unable to control his bladder for a 20 to 25 minute drive,” said Ms Landin.

Bowes was arrested because his former girlfriend had told them four days earlier he had gone to her Filey house at 11pm despite being subject to a restraining order banning him from contacting her or going to her home.

He was circulated as wanted and when police spotted him on June 2, they accosted him.

The van had had to be deep cleaned and the vehicle was out of action until it was cleaned, said Ms Landin.

On May 19, Humberside Police had arrested Bowes for his behaviour towards the landlady in Bridlington. On that occasion he had urinated on the floor of the custody suite at Hull Central Police Station.

Ms Webster said Bowes had been in prison for more than four months since his arrest and wanted to be released so he could get a job and money to buy Christmas presents.