City centre ban helped drug-user get clean (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

City centre ban helped drug-user get clean

7:00pm Saturday 6th June 2009 in

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A former heroin and crack cocaine user who raised cash for his drug habit by being part of a gang of serial shoplifters has told how an ASBO saved his life.

Scott Snowden, 35, was squatting in a warehouse behind Tesco in Canal Road, Bradford, taking up to £120 of heroin every day and stealing to pay for each fix.

After breaking into a car in October 2007, he was given an ASBO (anti-social behaviour order) banning him from the city centre.

Bradford Magistrates’ Court has now lifted the two-year order, six months ahead of schedule. Following the hearing, in which magistrates praised the efforts of Mr Snowden, the police and Bradford Council’s ASBO team, the reformed drug-user told of his spiral into despair.

He said: “I was spending between £60 and £120 a day and heroin doesn’t last long so you have to be on it all the time. I was in people’s flats taking heroin if I could but I was living in a cold warehouse, so I took it there.

“It was horrible in there and that is when I made my mind up to get off it.

“I just got up one day and thought ‘I’m sick of this and I need to do something about it’. I was living on the streets and looking really scruffy and I thought ‘it’s either stop it and live a good life or carry on and end up dead’.”

He moved from the warehouse to Agape House, a drug rehabilitation centre in Idle.

From there, he has managed to secure a flat in Manchester Road, Bradford, and is now working as a construction labourer for building firms across West Yorkshire.

Mr Snowden, who grew up in Fagley, said: “I love life now – it’s brilliant. My health is better and I’m not walking around the town a mess with people staring at me. I’ve got my own place and I’m really happy about it.”

Acting Sergeant Roger Moore, of the police offender management team, said: “We went to him in court after he had been arrested and was in the cells. He was in such a bad state, looking dishevelled, living rough and taking heroin and crack.

“But now he has done really well. He’s completely clean of drugs and the transformation that has taken place over the last 18 months has been fantastic.”

ASBO officer Helen Smith said: “I think we need to credit him for wanting to change but also the efforts of everyone who’s been helping him over the last couple of years. They have really given him the chance of making a difference to his life.”

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