Terror twin Amy Pugh hit with criminal-behaviour order for causing misery to people of Scarborough

Amy Pugh, 22, who has “caused misery” to the people of Scarborough down the years, was in bother again recently for threatening behaviour at York District Hospital while on a suspended prison sentence for a string of violent offences.

Pugh - who has dovetailed with twin sister Beth Pugh over the years in committing a whole manner of offences in the town - admitted threatening behaviour and breaching the suspended sentence.

That sentence was imposed in October last year when she and her sister, dubbed the Terror Twins, were spared jail despite for a raft of offences including witness intimidation and using violence to try to secure entry to premises.

Amy Pugh, formerly of Friars Way, Scarborough, appeared for sentence at Hull Crown Court today (June 27) after being remanded at Low Newton women’s prison.

She admitted using threatening behaviour towards a female hospital worker on Christmas Day last year.

The offence was in breach of the suspended sentence.

The police and prosecution applied for a criminal-behaviour order in a bid to stop Pugh blighting the lives of townsfolk, emergency workers and NHS staff.

In October 2022 at York Crown Court, the Pugh twins were given suspended jail sentences for a string of violent offences which 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 attacked by Amy Pugh, after she asked her sister to leave as she had previously been banned.

Amy Pugh punched the shopkeeper twice to the face, knocking the victim into some shelves, which caused a fractured rib.

Two officers arrived, at which point Amy Pugh punched one of them in the head as they tried to escort her sister out of the shop.

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, who was of Caribbean descent, and Amy Pugh smashed a glass pane in his door.

For those offences, Amy Pugh received a 15-month suspended jail term for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assaulting a police officer, witness intimidation, criminal damage, using violence to try to secure entry to her neighbour’s flat and causing him fear of violence which was racially

aggravated.

Beth Pugh, now living in York, was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence for common assault, witness intimidation, using violence to secure entry to premises and racially aggravated fear of violence.

Amy Pugh had 19 previous convictions for 41 offences including burglary, battery, damaging property, public disorder, shoplifting, carrying a blade, fraud and making hoax calls to the emergency services.

In the past, both sisters had been dealt with by community disposals and drug-and-alcohol-treatment programmes, but to no avail.

The court heard that the two sisters “did everything together and clearly have had a difficult upbringing and clearly suffer somewhat with mental-health issues” linked to past drug abuse.

Brooke Morrison, prosecuting at Hull Crown, said the criminal-behaviour order (CBO) was being sought primarily for the protection of NHS staff and emergency workers, but also to protect members of the public and NHS service users.

Defence barrister Rhianydd Clement said the twins had a “history of offending together” but that if Amy Pugh were spared jail she could be referred to an intervention service to stop her offending.

She said that council accommodation in Scarborough was still available to her if she was given her liberty.

The Probation Service said it wouldn’t be suitable for Pugh to be rehoused with her sister in York as this would make the situation “more chaotic for both of them”.

Mr Jackson KC described the incident at the hospital as “very unpleasant harassment of the hospital worker”.

He described Amy Pugh as a “recidivist troublemaker and a danger to herself”.

However, he said that it “wasn’t, on balance, necessary” for Pugh to spend any further time in prison.

He told Pugh: “The risk that you present to yourself and, equally, to members of the public is going to be better managed in the community.

“You have an appalling pattern of behaviour in the past, albeit you have shown some indication (that) you are progressing.”

For the offence of threatening behaviour, Pugh was given a 12-month community order.

To mark the breach of the suspended sentence, she was made subject to a four-month, electronically monitored curfew with a residency requirement.

The criminal-behaviour order was granted and will run for five years.