A MAN caught filming women's bottoms must change his behaviour if he wants to use a video recorder in public again, a judge said.

Sex offender Andrew Mackie, 33, lost his appeal against an indefinite ban from carrying a camera in public - anywhere in England or Wales.

He faces up to five years in jail if he repeats his actions of August 6, when he roamed York Railway Station, the city's shopping centre and Museum Gardens with a video recorder.

In May, magistrates saw the film made on August 6, in which he zoomed in on women's bottoms and bra straps.

They made a lifelong anti-social behaviour order banning Mackie from carrying anything capable of taking moving pictures.

They also confiscated his camcorder - the third time courts had taken video cameras off him for similar actions.

Mackie, of Oxbridge Lane, Stockton, who has previous convictions for indecent assault, appealed against the length of the ban at York Crown Court.

Rejecting the appeal, Judge David Bentley said magistrates had been sensible and responsible by trying to curb his behaviour without sending him to jail, after other methods failed.

He said Mackie was a potential menace to women and reminded him that he was able to apply for the order to be lifted or varied after two years - but only if he had kept out of trouble and committed no further offences.

Mackie's barrister, Paul Williams, called the ban overtly severe.

Mackie's ban was imposed for a public order offence which he admitted. He was also given a two-year community rehabilitation order.

The trial was told his film had pictures of women taken in York and Scarborough. He had previous convictions in Teesside and Gateshead for similar offences.