RACEGOERS are causing residents who live near York Racecourse “considerable distress” by urinating in their streets, York Magistrates Court heard.

They were sentencing a woman for her behaviour outside the racecourse last July.

Victoria Waudby, prosecuting for City of York Council, said there were lines of portable toilet cabins immediately outside the racecourse exit on Knavesmire Road on racing days.

But Alix Hayes, 28, had crouched down behind a car in Curzon Terrace and urinated.

She was seen by police who took her details and had her summonsed to the court.

Hayes, of Brooklands Road, Hull, now faces a £234 bill for urinating in public.

Magistrate Richard Goodacre, sitting with two colleagues said: “We cannot ignore the fact that residents on South Bank are caused considerable distress from the action of people like this who don’t avail themselves of the use of the portable cabins easily visible on the footpath outside the road leading down to York.”

Hayes pleaded guilty to urinating in public for which the maximum sentence is a fine.

Magistrates took into account her income as they fined her £50 and ordered her to pay £150 prosecution costs and a £34 statutory surcharge.

Hayes, who represented herself, apologised for her actions and said it could cost her a job.

“I have never been in trouble before,” she said. “I have a responsible job, I am a responsible individual.”

"I didn't feel I had a choice," she said.

She said she had had to relieve herself when she did for medical reasons and had deliberately chosen a place where she thought the public could not see her.

She claimed she hadn’t seen the portable toilet cabins outside the racecourse.

When police spoke to her, she said the queues for toilets inside the racecourse had been “ridiculous”.

Magistrates heard Hayes committed the offence at 6pm on Saturday July 24.

That was the second day of the Music Showcase Weekend when the racecourse was at full capacity after the relaxing of coronavirus restrictions.