A GHANIAN man pleaded guilty to being drunk and disorderly in a public place after being arrested by police on Wood Street, Old Town, in the early hours of Monday morning.

Lewis Nana Mmiri Opoku, 35, of no fixed address, was out drinking with two friends on Sunday night when he became rowdy and boisterous, prompting door staff to call the police.

The defendant, who appeared before Swindon magistrates on Tuesday July 19, was also charged with obstructing a constable in the execution of duty after he refused to divulge his personal details.

This was dropped, however, after magistrates decided that Opoku, who was unable to speak English, simply didn’t understand what the officers were asking.

Wayne Hardy, defending, said: “Mr Opoku fully accepts he was in a drunken state on Sunday evening and he accepts his behaviour was disruptive when the police were trying to sort out the situation.”

Mr Hardy described his client as “a writer with no regular income who lives hand-to-mouth each day as it comes”.

Opoku was given a £90 fine and told that the two nights he had already spent in custody, due to the court’s struggle to find an interpreter, was enough time served.