Scarborough 'Terror Twin' Amy Pugh jailed for 'raft of offences' including carrying a knife and racial harassment

Amy Grace Pugh, 23, described as a “recidivist troublemaker”, appeared for sentence at York Crown Court on Monday, October 30 after she admitted three counts of breaching a criminal-behaviour order, racially aggravated harassment and breaching a suspended prison sentence.

She also admitted failing to comply with a community order and breaching a restraining order.

Prosecutor Rachel Kelly said that in August last year, police were called out to reports of a racially aggravated disturbance involving Pugh and a female neighbour.

Pugh had shouted “racial slurs” at the victim who said her neighbour had “ruined her life”.

She said that Pugh “walks the streets tormenting me”.

The previous month, Pugh was seen by a member of the public “in the middle of Manor Road” with injuries to her body.

Emergency services were called but she then “got up off the floor and said (the injuries) were self-inflicted”.

She was arrested for breaching a criminal-behaviour order imposed in June, prohibiting her from calling or accessing emergency services unless in genuine need of assistance.

On July 30, a bizarre incident in Malton led to her arrest for a second breach of the order.

Ms Kelly said a police officer on patrol at Malton Bus Station was told by staff that Pugh was causing trouble after claiming she had left her bag “containing alcohol” on a bus.

Shortly afterwards, CCTV operators called police to say that a woman was lying in the road on Castlegate at traffic lights.

When officers arrived at the scene, Pugh appeared to be “unresponsive”.

When an officer told her to go back to Scarborough or she would be in breach of her order, Pugh suddenly opened her eyes and said: “Did you say the booze was at the bus station?”

Ms Kelly said this showed that Pugh had feigned her apparent comatose state.

Three days earlier, Pugh had been given a community order and four-month curfew at Hull Crown Court for threatening behaviour which she breached months later by being absent from her place of curfew.

In total, she had clocked up over 52 hours of unacceptable absences.

In September this year, she threatened to smash a man’s windows.

As he was calling police, she started banging on his door and threw rotten fruit at it, in breach of a restraining order designed to protect him.

On the same day, she turned up at a club in Scarborough carrying a kitchen knife.

“She told staff and customers she had been attacked,” said Ms Kelly.

“A third party disarmed her at the club.”

And on the same day, she called police from Cross Street claiming she had been in hospital “for 422 hours”.

“When the call-handler told her they couldn’t (come out), she threatened to kill herself,” added Ms Kelly.

The following day, she turned up at Scarborough District Hospital with a cut to her leg which staff bandaged.

“She forcibly removed those bandages and pulled the emergency alarms, causing disruption to the care of other patients,” said Ms Kelly.

Pugh, of Friars Way, Scarborough, had 24 previous convictions for 53 offences including serious violence, public disorder, carrying a knife, witness intimidation and criminal damage.

In June, she was slapped with a five-year criminal-behaviour order to protect the public, emergency workers and NHS staff after threatening staff at York District Hospital while on a suspended prison sentence for a string of violent offences.

Pugh, who had dovetailed with twin sister Beth Pugh over the years in committing a whole manner of offences, earning them the nickname the ‘Terror Twins’, was spared jail in October last year despite a series of offences including witness intimidation and using violence to try to secure entry to premises which culminated in a suspended prison sentence.

She had left a Scarborough shopkeeper with a broken rib and suspected collapsed lung and a man too scared to leave his home.

They brought chaos and violence to the One Stop Shop on North Marine Road where the female shopkeeper was punched twice to the face by Amy Pugh, who also attacked a police officer.

There was a subsequent incident, in August last year, when the twins terrorised a resident at the block of flats where Amy Pugh lived.

The sisters shouted racial insults at the victim and Amy Pugh smashed a glass pane in his door.

Defence barrister Nick Peacock said Amy Pugh’s prolific offending was informed by a “lethal combination” of mental-health problems and drink-and-drug abuse.

Recorder Mr T Clayson said that despite Pugh’s appalling record, he had to bear in mind her young age and mental-health problems which meant he could substantially reduce the sentence that might otherwise be imposed for such offences.

Pugh smirked as she was jailed for just 18 months.

She will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.