A drug addicted dad has repeatedly broken a restraining order banning him from contacting his grandmother.
James Rollinson, 31, went round to his gran’s house and asked for cash, hours after he was released from prison, on November 7. He was jailed for 20-months in August 2024, for breaking his restraining order for the 30th time, and for burgling Stockton’s Splash leisure centre.
Teesside Crown Court has heard that Rollinson’s grandmother brought him up and she is the only family he has. The Stockton man’s barrister Nicci Horton said that he relies on her “for emotional support – but she is the one person he’s not allowed to contact”.
The Middlesbrough court heard that Rollinson’s gran gave him £50 on November 7, in the hope that he would leave her alone. But Rollinson turned up again, days later on November 11. His grandmother gave him some food and £40.
On November 25, he repeatedly called his grandmother, asking her to transfer £325 into a bank account. The victim called the police. On November 30, Rollinson knocked on his gran’s window and asked for £40.
The grandmother told police that she was “feeling terrible” after suffering from a heart attack – and that she didn’t want Rollinson to keep coming round asking for cash. She said that it was causing her stress.
Ms Horton told the court: “She is hoping desperately, I imagine, that her grandson will change and he won’t fall back into drug misuse. The two of them seem to be caught in this constant merry-go-round where he gets out of prison, gets back in contact with her.
“She wants to help and gives him money and it continues again and again.” Rollinson, formerly of Norton Road in Stockton, pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching a restraining order.
He was recalled to prison after his grandmother called the police, to serve the remainder of his 20-month sentence. Judge Timothy Stead told Rollinson: “Your grandmother is 71. She has had a heart attack and she reports that she is under stress from your visits. She has tried to buy your absence.
“Do you really want to spend your best years in a prison? That’s what you’re shaping up to do. You know what not to do in the future.”
Rollinson was jailed for 16-months.
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