A MAN who became the first person to receive an NHS-wide anti-social behaviour order has been jailed for three years.

Fetishist Norman Hutchins was jailed for harassing NHS staff and obtaining gowns and surgical masks by deception.

He was also given a criminal anti-social behaviour order, which bans him from entering or contacting any medical or dental establishment in England or Wales except for genuine illness.

Leeds Crown Court heard the 53-year-old York man pestered a nurse repeatedly one day to send him surgical equipment.

The court was told Hutchins phoned dental practices in London, Nottingham, Sunderland and Dundee, and a Grimsby hospital, asking for masks. He pleaded guilty to five charges of obtaining property by deception and one of attempted deception.

Hutchins, of Rowntree Avenue, pleaded guilty to a public order offence, five charges of deception, one of attempted deception and one of carrying a dinner knife in public.

He committed the offences despite an earlier High Court injunction that banned him from entering or contacting certain named hospitals and dental establishments.

Hutchins' barrister, Simon Kealey, said it was legal for people to have surgical masks, but that Hutchins broke the law because he lied about his reasons for having them.

He said the crimes did not reflect wider concern about him.

He said that except one case, the telephone calls had not harmed anyone, and that Hutchins' offending had lessened in recent years.

NHS spokesman Jim Gee said: "Hutchins harassed NHS employees on 47 separate occasions during a five-month period. He caused many of them distress and alarm.

"NHS staff should not have to tolerate such behaviour from anybody."