First for Huddersfield police as Moldgreen house is slapped with a closure order

Jun 27 2009 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A HOUSE at the centre of Moldgreen’s crimewave has been closed down.

The shutters went up at 39 Church Street yesterday after it was made the object of Kirklees Council’s first ever closure order in Huddersfield.

Its occupants, Craig Wallace and Thomas Ashton, will no longer be allowed to enter the property.

Prosecutor Geoff Bell told magistrates that there had been a 150% increase in crimes reported on Church Street so far this year, while the number of offences committed had risen by 61%.

Magistrates heard that ongoing incidents of antisocial behaviour were having an adverse affect on neighbours.

On May 8, police were called to reports of large scale violent disorder outside the house in which a man had been hit over his head with a glass bottle.

On May 20, a dog owned by one of the occupants bit another dog which was on a lead at the time and left badly injured. There were countless reports of drunken behaviour, verbal and racial abuse.

Neither Wallace nor Ashton attended the hearing at Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Mr Bell said: “They are both tenants of 39 Church Street in Moldgreen and are both believed to have now left the property. The police have reported significant rises in the number of incidents reported at this property.

“All are in relation to nuisance, disorder, drunken behaviour and the like.

“Police have been working with residents around the area and say they are fed-up with the ongoing problems linked to this house.”