A man seeking to overturn a judgment against his mother for unpaid phone bills has been chastised in Magistrates’ Court.

The Royal Gazette also came in for criticism for its coverage of the case.

Jose Beek, 40, of Harrington Sound Road, Smith’s, had argued previously that his 73-year-old mother Janice Beek should not be held liable for the costs.

Senior Magistrate Juan Wolffe heard on Monday that Mr Beek’s mother, who had difficulties in comprehension, had lost her phone, which subsequently ran up Digicel bills.

However, on that occasion Mr Beek did not mention in court that her grandson had incurred the charges and lost the phone — which Mrs Beek, who held the contract, had subsequently acknowledged to the company.

“Why didn’t you call Digicel and say cut the service?” Mr Wolffe responded yesterday in court. “Simply saying it’s lost is not enough.”

Mr Wolffe said he saw no reason to prejudice Digicel and set aside a four-year-old judgment.

The amended judgment requires $1,500 to be paid off — leaving off the remainder of the full bill of $2,224.

Representing Digicel, lawyer Christopher Swan told the court that when the family had initially complained about the bill, Digicel investigated the matter and traced the phone calls and texts to Mrs Beek’s grandson.

At a meeting with Digicel’s representative in May 2011, Mrs Beek agreed to pay $200 off the bill, followed by gradual monthly payments.

“She went on to say that it was her grandson’s bill and that he was currently unemployed,” Mr Swan added.

There were two payments of $50 each made in June and July of 2012, but the bulk of the outstanding bill was left unpaid.

Mr Wolffe voiced his displeasure at Tuesday’s article in The Royal Gazette on the court appearance, branding it “sensationalist reporting” and adding: “This court will not tolerate scurrilous and scandalous comments being made about the court.”

Newspaper coverage of active court matters is limited to what is said in the courtroom, which in Monday’s case consisted solely of Mr Beek’s case to the magistrate, as there was no Digicel representative present.

Mr Beek yesterday acknowledged informing the media of Monday’s court summons and apologised.

According to Mr Swan, Digicel opted to “cut them some slack” and drop debt collection fees and other costs, with the family to pay off the $1,500 bill in instalments of $100 a month.