One of Bradford's 'super caretakers' could be jailed for not paying his Council Tax after being prosecuted by his own employer.

Ian Jackson, a Bradford Council neighbourhood warden, faces 25 days in jail unless he starts making regular payments within the next two months.

Jackson, who has a wife and two young children, is said to owe almost £2,000 in unpaid Council Tax on three different properties.

Yesterday he appeared before Bradford Magistrates after a fifth warrant had been issued for his arrest.

Margaret Howard, for the Council's enforcement department, said magistrates had found Jackson was in 'culpable neglect' in October last year after he failed to make fortnightly payments in respect of arrears totalling more than £700 in relation to a property in Reevy Road West. Those arrears went back as far as 1997.

Because of his non-payment record, magistrates made Jackson the subject of a 28-day suspended jail term in October, but ordered him to pay arrears at the rate of £15-a-week.

Mrs Howard revealed only four payments had been made, with none since November.

Magistrates were told the £60 Jackson had paid meant the jail term he now faced was reduced to 25 days. Jackson also owed Council tax of over £1,100 for properties in Buttershaw Drive and Trenholme Avenue.

Solicitor Duncan Wilcock said Jackson found himself in a difficult position, but said his problems had been caused largely by the erratic nature of previous agency employment. ''He now tells me that from March this year he's been employed by the same Council, ironically that brings him to court today, as a neighbourhood warden,'' he said.

He said Jackson, of Barden Avenue, Buttershaw, had been negotiating to try to get his payments made through an attachment of earnings order. ''All I can ask the court to do today is allow him one further opportunity and to suspend matters further for about eight weeks,'' he added.

''Give him time to honour the commitments he's making today. If he fails to meet that criteria then the court will probably have no alternative but to send him to prison.''

The magistrates decided that Jackson should start making payments of £15-a-week and they adjourned his case again until August 31 to see if he keeps up the payments.