Offender pays after churning up cricket pitch

The 22-year-old, from Chesterfield, handed over the cash and apologised for the incident on Sunday, January 26.

Officers spoke with the park staff, who reported the incident, and said they would be happy if the costs of repairing the damage were recovered.

The crime was dealt with under restorative justice, an initiative introduced by Derbyshire Constabulary in 2009 to reduce bureaucracy and deal with crime in a way which achieves a positive outcome, in line with the victims’ wishes and without the case going through the court process.

PC Stephen O’Callaghan of the Chesterfield Town Safer Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “The man admitted damaging the ground and apologised. He agreed to pay for the repairs in line with the request of the park staff.

“By using restorative justice we aim to find a positive solution which encourages people to face up to their actions and provides them with a chance to do something to repair any harm caused.”

Officers have been trained to use their professional judgement based on their discretion, policing experience and skills to resolve incidents.

Crimes which are resolved using restorative justice are still recorded as usual but dealt with in a more proportionate way.

You can find out more about how restorative justice is being used by logging on to www.restorativejustice.org.uk.