Criminalising homelessness: Homeless man jailed and forced to pay £115 after he fell asleep in doorway of central Bath hotel

He has to pay a £115 victim surcharge

A homeless man has to pay £115 – after being locked up for falling asleep in the doorway of a hotel in Bath.

When 51-year-old Eli John James refused to leave the doorway of the Westgate Buildings Travelodge in Bath city centre on Saturday, December 9, he was arrested and dragged before the courts.

Two days later at Bath Magistrates Court James pleaded guilty to sleeping in the doorway without a reasonable excuse and was sentenced to three weeks in jail.

Room rates at the Travelodge start at £63, while Mr James's £115 fine must be paid by Christmas day
The Travelodge in Westgate Buildings is the company’s third in Bath

The court imposed a £115 victim surcharge.

Mr James, of no fixed address, was in violation of a criminal behaviour order imposed by Salisbury Court in May of this year when he refused to leave the Travelodge doorway.

Mr James is facing the prospect of paying hotel giants Travelodge a £115 victim surcharge
James has to pay a £115 victim surcharge

Bath Magistrates Court also noted that the offence was so serious because of Mr James’s previous breaches of the order, and because the breach was aggravated by the defendant’s previous offending.

One thought on “Criminalising homelessness: Homeless man jailed and forced to pay £115 after he fell asleep in doorway of central Bath hotel”

  1. It costs £65,000 to imprison a person in this country once police, court costs and all the other steps are taken into account. After that it costs a further £40,000 for each year they spend incarcerated. If the growth in the prison population is not reversed then more prisons will have to be built, at a huge expense.
    How much is the most basic income for unemployed? £1,975 per year or less with sanctions..

    I’m sure you’ll understand more police will just mean fuller prisons at greater cost .. the Americans will soon take over the prisons turning them into work houses true Victorian values.

Leave a Reply to Brian Cox Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

a landrights campaign for Britain

%d bloggers like this: