Man jailed after using phone at wheel in Lewes

A man has been jailed for offences police say they uncovered after he was seen using his mobile phone while driving in Lewes.
Mark Jenks, , 63, of Brunswick Terrace, Hove, has been given a five and half-year prison sentence for offences that police uncovered after they stopped him for using his mobile phone while driving. SUS-170428-151917001Mark Jenks, , 63, of Brunswick Terrace, Hove, has been given a five and half-year prison sentence for offences that police uncovered after they stopped him for using his mobile phone while driving. SUS-170428-151917001
Mark Jenks, , 63, of Brunswick Terrace, Hove, has been given a five and half-year prison sentence for offences that police uncovered after they stopped him for using his mobile phone while driving. SUS-170428-151917001

Mark Jenks, also known as Mark Brown, 63, of Brunswick Terrace, Hove, was sentenced at Brighton Crown Court on April 24 for possession of cannabis with intent to supply, production of cannabis, unlawfully abstracting electricity, breaching the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and using a phone while driving.

He was given five and a half-year prison sentences, will be a registered sex offender for ten years, and was also given a renewed 10-year SHPO severely restricting his access to children.

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In January 2017 patrolling police officers spotted Jenks using his phone while driving near Lewes. They stopped him at nearby Ringmer and on checking his car found two bags full of cannabis.

He was arrested for this offence, and a search of his address revealed a cannabis hydroponics set up in the loft.

Subsequent enquiries confirmed that he was in breach of his SHPO as he was found to have visited a leisure centre in Eastbourne, and was in breach of an existing sex offender registration requirement as he had new bank accounts which had not been notified to the police.

Detective Constable James Meanwell said: “This case shows how good work by our colleagues on the roads can also disrupt serious criminality.”

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The SHPO had initially been issued to Jenks at Chichester Crown Court in 1999 following his conviction for indecently assaulting a girl under 14 in Southwick.

He has had several further convictions since then for breach of sex offender registration and SHPO requirements, resulting in courts varying and replacing previous Orders, but has had no convictions for contact offending in the past ten years.

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