POLICE are using new powers to prevent the region's worst football hooligans causing mayhem at the European Championships.

In a civil case brought by police - one of the first cases of its kind in the country - a notorious thug from the North-East was yesterday banned from going to the tournament in Portugal.

Lee Owens - nicknamed The Belly of Brussels - was also banned from every football ground in the country and from visiting any town or city where Middlesbrough are playing for the next three years.

Last night, police welcomed the ruling and vowed more thugs would be brought before the courts to face similar orders to stop them travelling to the championships this June.

Detective Sergeant Ian Fawcett, of Cleveland Police's football intelligence unit, said: "This is a fantastic decision and sends the message to all football hooligans that violence will not be tolerated."

Father-of-three Owens, 38, is one of 30 hooligans from the Cleveland force area to receive a football banning order, but the first in a civil court.

The others have all been dealt with in criminal courts but have received similar bans - which include having to surrender passports five days before England play and reporting to police on the day of games.

Throughout the region, almost 100 hooligans have received banning orders while the figure nationally has topped 2,100 and police have promised more before the championships.

Northumbria Police has almost quarter-of-a-million pounds from the Government to secure orders, while Cleveland's new football intelligence unit is using what it calls a "two-pronged attack".

Officers are working to identify and arrest supporters from Middlesbrough and Hartlepool United who are involved in match-day trouble, as well as using historical evidence under the civil law.

They can go back ten years - and use accounts like those in a book by reformed hooligan John Pulling - to back up their allegations against suspects.

Owens was branded a "violent thug" hell-bent on causing chaos at matches nationwide when his case was heard in his absence at Teesside Magistrates' Court yesterday.

During Euro 2000 in Belgium and Holland, he was famously pictured with his tattooed belly hanging out as he was arrested and frogmarched away by police following a riot.

The same photograph was then featured in a book written by Mr Pulling.

The book refers to "Oatsy" being involved and it was used in evidence to show his thirst for violence.

Detective Constable Steve Burke said: "Some of the evidence in the book was excellent independent corroboration."

Owens, of Nolan House, Stockton, has a string of convictions for violence dating back to 1985, but was not charged with any offences following Euro 2000.

But yesterday, District Judge Harrison said "true supporters" and "the national game" had to be protected from violent thugs such as Owens and ordered him to pay £3,000 court costs.

Det Sgt Fawcett said: "This is the first football banning order sought by Cleveland Police in the civil courts but it won't be the last. This is a landmark case."

Banning order hearings against Mark Pallister, 32, of Hillside Road, Norton, and Gary Bolton, 35, of Biddick Close, Stockton, both Teesside, were adjourned for week.