A MAN with no previous convictions has been jailed after telling a police officer he had covid and then coughing on her.

Blackburn magistrates heard the officer was wearing full personal protection equipment and none of Thomas Mullins' spittle contacted her skin.

Jailing Mullins for four weeks Deputy District Judge Stuart Boyd said police officers do a very difficult job, especially during the covid pandemic.

"While most people are keeping themselves safe they are in the front line having to deal with people face to face and in close proximity," said Deputy District Judge Boyd. "They shouldn't be subjected to this behaviour and when they are they can expect the protection of the courts."

Mullins, who gave an address in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, but was said to be staying in a caravan in Leyland, pleaded guilty to assaulting an emergency worker, damaging the window of a police car and failing to provide a specimen for analysis. He was jailed for four weeks, ordered to pay £200 compensation to the officer and banned from driving for 54 weeks.

Samantha Hayward, prosecuting, said police attended a road traffic collision on Bolton Road and there were two men present who both appeared to be intoxicated.

Mullins was one of them and witnesses indicated Mullins had been the driver.

He was arrested and put in the back of a police vehicle where he broke a window with the handcuffs he was wearing. He ended up being pepper sprayed before being taken to the police station.

Mullins told the officer he had covid before coughing in her face. He refused to provide a breath sample.

Duncan Nightingale, defending, said his client had always maintained he was a passenger in the rear seat of the car when the collision occurred.

"He mistakenly believed that because he wasn't the driver he didn't have to comply with the test procedure," said Mr Nightingale. "He accepts that at the police station things took a turn for the worse."