Six Months For Aggressive Police Caller

A Derby man's stay at top-security HMP Belmarsh is almost at and end after he was sentenced to six months imprisonment.

Danesh Joshi, 49, has been locked-up since he appeared in custody via videolionk at Croydon Magistrates' Court on March 23.

He was originally charged with making a threat to kill his probation officer, but this was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

However, Joshi, of Portland Street, Cavendish remained remanded in custody on charges relating to his threatening phone calls to Derbyshire Police.

He twice appeared at Inner London Crown Court without a lawyer representing him and was eventually sentenced this week at a Royal Courts of Justice hearing.

Joshi will only have to serve half of the sentence and once his time on remand is deducted, should be released this month.

At his two Inner London Crown Court appearances he claimed he did not know if he was guilty or not, despite previously admitting making the threatening phone calls to his local constabulary.

Joshi also complained of suffering from memory loss and anxiety.

“I am at Belmarsh. I was at Thameside and somebody made an allegation about me that I was going to kill my probation officer, but did not take it forward,” he told the court.

Previous offender Joshi pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Derbyshire Police and persistently making use of a public communication network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety on December 18, last year.

He admitted the offences when he appeared via videolink at Croydon Magistrates Court, where the charge of making threats to kill were dropped.

“I have been suffering from memory loss and it is a complicated situation,” he told Judge Freya Newbery from the dock at the earlier Inner London Crown Court hearing.

“I am also suffering from anxiety and have not had my medication and realistically I don't know if I am guilty or not.”

The court heard the maximum sentence he was facing was two years imprisonment.

“I married an individual who caused problems, blackmailed me and threatened to put me away for a very long time so I could not go to the police,” added Joshi.

“I have been removed from my own home, which is mortgaged and she is still there and I'm in London with life-sentence prisoners giving me bad advice.”