Legal Cases
In June 2004, The Sun newspaper reported that Courtney had been cleared of beating his wife during a row over her lesbian lover.
In January 2009 he was given an 18 month conditional discharge at Bristol Crown Court, on a charge of possessing live ammunition without a firearms certificate. His defence of not knowing that the single live pistol round was live rather than a stage prop prompted Judge Ticehurst to comment, “It perhaps undermines your street credibility and your stage performance that you cannot distinguish between a real round and a fake round. But perhaps that’s not for me to say.”
In May 2009 he was made bankrupt, owing £400,000 to creditors, including taxes of £250,000.
On the 29th July, 2009, he was arrested and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon, specifically a Brocock Air Cartridge pistol, and possession of a firearm whilst being a prohibited person. He was sent in custody to Woolwich Crown Court for trial. Although the Brocock pistol was previously legal as an air-weapon (and would then have been legal for Courtney to possess), past police concerns (unconnected to Courtney) over the "ease" with which they might be converted as cartridge-firing firearms led to a ban on this specific design. Courtney was on remand in HMP Belmarsh, concerning the aforementioned Firearms offences. On 10 December, Courtney was cleared after the jury took two hours to find him not guilty on all charges.
Read more about this topic: Dave Courtney
Famous quotes containing the words legal and/or cases:
“... whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining absolute power over wives. But you must remember that Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken—and notwithstanding all your wise Laws and Maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our Masters, and without violence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet ...”
—Abigail Adams (1744–1818)
“We noticed several other sandy tracts in our voyage; and the course of the Merrimack can be traced from the nearest mountain by its yellow sand-banks, though the river itself is for the most part invisible. Lawsuits, as we hear, have in some cases grown out of these causes. Railroads have been made through certain irritable districts, breaking their sod, and so have set the sand to blowing, till it has converted fertile farms into deserts, and the company has had to pay the damages.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)