ORDINARILY, you’re the one who receives cash and presents on your birthday – but one Powys man has been forced to dish out more than £200 after he celebrated his special day by damaging a police vehicle.

Alistair Whiting, from Mill View Close in Howey, near Llandrindod Wells, damaged a police vehicle in Northampton on August 21 this year – he was celebrating his 37th birthday that day.

He had previously admitted a charge of causing criminal damage to property valued under £5,000 and appeared at Northampton Magistrates' Court on Thursday, November 11, for sentence.

The value of the damage Whiting caused was said to be unknown, but magistrates ordered him to pay £50 compensation at the hearing.

He also has to pay an £80 fine as well as £40 costs and a £34 surcharge, making a total sum of £204, with the court ordering the money to be deducted from Whiting’s benefits.