A PENSIONER has appeared at Wirral Magistrates Court today with regard to alleged scratch damage running into thousand of pounds to cars parked near a new mosque in Birkenhead.

James Widnall Hodson, 82, of Cedar Street, Birkenhead, was denied summary trial by District Judge Nick Sanders and was remanded on bail until August 3 for committal proceedings to take place.

He faces thirteen charges of causing damage to parked vehicles near the mosque in Whetstone Lane and also 13 similar charges with the added element they were religiously aggravated and to which not guilty pleas were indicated.