A 30-year-old Rastrick mum who caused a distressing disturbance on a bus has been sentenced to a 12-month community order.

Witnesses described Leoni Waugh as being “intoxicated” when she approached two other mums and their children at Halifax bus station in February and she became abusive while they were all sitting upstairs on the early evening bus.

Prosecutor Frances Pencheon told Bradford Crown Court today (Friday) that while the two women were chatting to their children Waugh turned round and said:”Stop ******* laughing at me.”

When one of the women said they weren’t laughing at her the defendant shouted insults and accused them of being “toffee-nosed snobs.”

When another female passenger tried to calm down the situation Waugh told her to **** off.

The court heard that Waugh, who was still subject at the time to a suspended jail sentence for assault and affray, was taken off the bus by police officers and she was sentenced after pleading guilty to a charge of disorderly behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress.

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Miss Pencheon said Waugh, of Rosemary Close, had 16 previous convictions for 23 offences and the latest incident took place just six weeks before the period of the suspended prison sentence came to an end.

Barrister Ken Green, for Waugh, said his client suffered from a bipolar condition and had been in a psychiatric unit for four weeks prior to the incident on the bus.

He explained that she had been to see her own children that day and while in an very emotional state she had sought solace in drink.

“It was as a result of her intoxication that she behaved in this way,” said Mr Green.

Recorder Bryan Cox QC warned Waugh that such behaviour in public would result in her going to prison if she was not careful.

But he decided that a 12-month community order with a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement was the appropriate sentence for the public order offence.