A MAN whose drinking habits led to him being branded a community nuisance was yesterday placed on a six-month curfew by magistrates.

Paul Edward Simpson, 35, of Brandlings Road, in Peterlee, east Durham, admitted making a hoax 999 call, breaching a community rehabilitation order and being drunk and disorderly.

The court heard yesterday how Simpson had pestered emergency services on numerous occasions when drunk, and, on January 21, this year, had used a pay phone to make a hoax 999 call.

Magistrates were told how he had been drunk and disorderly in Hale Rise, in Peterlee, on July 29 and had breached a community rehabilitation order in May.

On Simpson's behalf, solicitor Martin Scarborough told the bench Simpson had a drinking problem for four years, from the time he had parted from his wife and lost contact with his four children.

Mr Scarborough said that the many calls he had made to the emergency services had often been cries for help while he was in a depressed and drunken state.

He said a custodial sentence would not resolve his problems and Mr Scarborough asked the bench to consider a further community rehabilitation order.

Sentencing Simpson, the chairman of the bench told him he had become a nuisance in his community.

Magistrates said they had considered sending him to prison, but had instead decided to give him one last chance and placed him on a renewed community rehabilitation order for the next 18 months.

The bench also imposed a curfew on Simpson which will mean him remaining confined in his home every day between the hours of 6pm to midnight for the next six months.

He was warned that any breach of the order or curfew could result in him facing a prison sentence.