Overview

• Carlisle Magistrates’ Court found Anil Puri guilty of criminal damage for dumping a shrub on the Penrith Paddington Bear statue
• Court heard CCTV footage captured Puri pulling the plant from the planter before placing it on the bear’s head during a December incident
• Damage assessment identified £40 in scratches to the statue and £250 in harm to surrounding planters ahead of Puri’s £395 in ordered payments
• Penrith BID volunteers have begun restoring the only Cumbria figure in the nationwide Paddington Bear trail supporting the ’Paddington in Peru’ campaign
• Cumbria Police’s Eden Neighbourhood Policing Team said Operation Enhance will boost patrols in Penrith town centre with £1 million in new hotspot response funding