A British man's constant pestering of his parents for money led to a conviction for harassment. Photo / 123RF
A British man's constant pestering of his parents for money led to a conviction for harassment. Photo / 123RF
A son who was banned from contacting his parents for five years after they got fed up with him constantly pestering them for cash faced court again after breaching the restraining order.
Matthew Kerley, from Southampton in the UK, has been forbidden from approaching his parents after he was convicted of harassing family members.
Matthew Kerley is banned from contacting his parents, but still made 30 phone calls to them in one day.
Kerley's father, Paul, 60, supported the restraining order suggested by the Crown Prosecution Service after his harassment caused him and his 51-year-old wife Coreen extreme anxiety and stress.
The restriction on his movements came after Kerley was jailed for 32 weeks last year. But despite the restraining order, the 24-year-old made 30 phone calls to his parents in one day, breaching its requirements.
Prosecutor Liam Hunt told Southampton Magistrates' Court in Hampshire how the the 24-year-old continued to ask for money, lying about the reason.
"He told his parents he had a job interview and needed to shave, but his shaver had broken halfway through," he said. "He asked his parents for money, which they gave him, but he then turned up with a full beard.
"His pestering of his parents for money led to the harassment conviction last year, but this behaviour seems to have started up again.
"In one day last month, his parents received 30 calls. These have also been in the middle of the night.
"A number of messages have also been received criticising them, before asking yet again for money."
Matthew Kerley was convicted of harassing family members.
Mitigating, Julie Macey said that Kerley acknowledged his actions had to stop, and that time spent in HMP Bullingdon, Oxfordshire, had done him "the world of good".
'He is looking a lot healthier now than when I saw him three weeks ago," she said.
"While he was not supposed to contact his parents, it was their bank account that his benefits were being sent to. Now, I believed that is fixed.
"He has a friend to go and stay with now, so things are looking up. He acknowledges he caused his parents a lot of stress and anxiety, and that it had to stop. Prison seems to have done him the world of good."
Chairman of the magistrates Steven Anderton sentenced Kerley, of Eastleigh, Hampshire, to a 12-month community order for breaching the restraining order.
