SERIAL pest Ashley Jones is back on the streets after escaping jail for up to five years due to a legal technicality.

Mr Jones, 45, who has been arrested more than 350 times, was due to stand trial at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, charged with twice breaching an anti-social behaviour order.

The order bans him from visiting ex-girlfriend Haleema Abdulla, at her home at Hazel Grove, South Shields.

Having already been jailed four times for breaching the order, Mr Jones visited the address twice last year.

Yesterday, Judge Esmond Faulks was forced to throw the case out of court after the Crown Prosecution Service could not prove that Mr Jones was served the order.

Prosecutor Gavin Doig said the Crown could not prove he was served with a copy in person.

Defence barrister Tom Finch told the court that if Mr Jones faced trial, he would give evidence that he had not received notice of the order.

Judge Faulks said: "It would be contrary to natural justice for somebody to face conviction for being in breach of an order which has not been served."

The Libyan-born former boxer was one of the first people in the country to be placed under an anti-social behaviour order in 1999, breaching it within weeks.

Jones, of Condercum Road, Benwell, Newcastle, was given a copy of the order, yesterday, on his release.