Joshua Holdsworth ordered by Byron court to pay $2000 for damage to car

A badly damaged car greeted police when they responded to residents’ calls about a late night commotion at Byron Bay. Read how the arrival of officers failed to silence a man.

Seaview Street, Byron Bay. Picture: Google maps.

The word ‘dog’ was carved into the paintwork of a woman’s car, and rubbish bins were strewn on the ground in an early morning ruckus that panicked residents in a quiet Byron Bay street.

Police responded to several calls from neighbours on Seaview Street after a man was heard swearing loudly and kicking over bins on October 10.

Joshua Holdsworth, 41, of Fletcher Street, pleaded guilty at Byron Bay Local Courthouse on Monday, October 31, to behaving in offensive manner in a public place and behaving in an offensive manner close to a school while contravening a restriction in an apprehended violence order order and damaging property.

Police arrived at the address shortly after 2am and saw a Volkswagen Jetta with a deep scratch mark down the driver’s side, and the word ‘dog’ etched into the boot’s paintwork.

The vehicle’s quarter rear window panel was smashed, the passenger door was hanging open and the side mirrors lay on the ground.

Nearby, recycling bins were knocked over and rubbish was strewn on the ground, police state.

Rubbish bins. Picture: File.

Holdsworth and a woman arrived at the scene, court documents state, and officers discovered he was breaching an AVO by being in her company.

He was placed under arrest.

Holdsworth began to swear and yell at the woman and officers when he was being searched, police facts state.

The woman told officers Holdsworth was responsible for the damage to her car.

“He went off and kicked the mirrors off my car and scratched my car with a knife,” she told police.

“He smashed the panel window a few days prior.”

Holdsworth continued yelling abuse at the woman from the back of the police car, court documents state.

However the woman declined to make an official statement due to being ‘stressed’, but was prepared to seek compensation for the damage to the vehicle - which she had previously been forced to live in.

The court heard Holdsworth and the woman had been in an intimate relationship for nine months.

Magistrate Karen Stafford told Holdsworth the woman’s car would have been of great personal value as it had once provided her with shelter.

Ms Stafford convicted Holdsworth and sentenced him to a nine-month community corrections order.

He was also fined $300 and ordered to pay $2000 for the damage to the car.