A jumpy Jack Russell has caused its owner to be fined after biting two people.

Terrence Allen, 55, of Tassell Hall, Redbourn, was ordered to pay £365 to the court for failing to control his nine-month-old dog Tinks’ on two occasions last September.

A contingency destruction order was also placed on the dog, which has since been taken out of the county by one of Allen’s children.

The court heard that on September 3, 2015, Tinks was seen walking around unsupervised on Long Cutt, having escaped from the family home with another brown and white Jack Russell belonging to the family.

The unsupervised pooch then jumped up and bit a young woman walking through the area on the thigh before heading back in the direction of the house.

After running out of Allen’s mother’s home on September 30, Tinks bit a young mother as she loaded her two young children of one year and 13 days into a car.

Alan Burdis-Smith, defending, said that as well as an early guilty plea Allen was not able to always look after the dog because of commitments to care for his elderly mother.

Magistrate Mrs D Clapper, said: “We are satisfied that if Tinks is kept on a lead with a muzzle on whenever he is out of the house then in future such examples of behaviour will not be repeated.”