TWO notorious Skipton nuisances have been drummed out of town for five years in a landmark court agreement brokered by the police and Craven District Council.

Angry and intimidated residents queued up to tell magistrates what they had suffered at the hands of alcoholics and drug addicts based at a house in Gladstone Street, Skipton.

But the court heard that the appalling behaviour of Darren (Daz) Hall and Liz Reynoldson extended beyond the drugs den to supermarkets and public places across the town.

Magistrates heard what they termed "a whole raft of evidence" against the pair, including nude bathing in the canal, drunk, offensive and threatening behaviour and breasts bared to staff at Morrisons supermarket.

Time was called on Hall and Reynoldson, both of no fixed address, on Wednesday when chairman of the magistrates Jack Sutcliffe dealt out a five-year anti-social behaviour (ASBO) on each.

They are the first stand-alone ASBOs to be issued in Craven - the others were imposed as part of a sentence following a criminal conviction.

Mr Sutcliffe told the pair that he and his two colleagues were certain the pair had caused harassment, alarm and distress in the town.

Mr Sutcliffe said Hall, 32, had a blas attitude to drinking in public places and had bathed nude in the canal. Reynoldson, 51, had caused problems for years for staff at Morrisons and Tesco. Members of staff had threatened to resign because of her drunk and aggressive behaviour.

Special conditions of the ASBO were that the pair must not:

o Enter any part of Skipton marked on an exclusion zone (almost all of the town).

o Behave in a threatening, violent or abusive way to anyone anywhere in England and Wales or use threatening, abusive or insulting words.

o Be in possession of alcohol in an opened container, can or bottle and/or any illegal drugs in a public place.

o Be found in the company in a public place of each another, Danny Greenwood, Malcolm Abbott or Johnny Howsen.

o Interfere with witnesses in the court proceedings.

Mr Sutcliffe warned Hall and Reynoldson that breaking any of the conditions could mean a five-year prison sentence.

An indignant Hall announced in court that he was appealing against the ASBO and John Mewies, Reynoldson's solicitor, said there was a possibility of an appeal.

But Stacey Mitchell, ASBO co-ordinator for Craven area, welcomed the court decision. The council had aimed for a 10-year ASBO but was very happy with the five-year outcome.

She told the Craven Herald: "I am absolutely delighted that all our hard work has paid off and I would like to thank all our witnesses. Their personal experiences have been invaluable."

She added that these were the first "stand alone" ASBOS given out by a court in the district. They reflected a long pattern of intolerable behaviour rather than a specific criminal offence.

The hearing began on October 4 when residents from Gladstone Street told how their lives had been made a misery by the unpleasant goings-on at one of the houses.

They cited Hall and Reynoldson as key players in a catalogue of nastiness that included loud drunkenness, swearing, threats, mooning, vomiting and syringes littering the street.

At the resumed civil hearing, brought by Craven District Council, Hall told magistrates he was addicted to alcohol, heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

He agreed that people at the Gladstone Street house fell out among themselves, but said he was never abusive to any other resident in the road.

He told the court: "Surely everyone should be given a fair chance. I don't mug old ladies or burgle houses and I never will. Somebody somewhere is stitching me up.

"It's using a sledgehammer to crack a nut - and then some."

Hall accused all the witnesses in Gladstone Street of lying and said the person that reported him for swimming naked in the canal "was probably about 80 and prudish."

He said there was nothing wrong with being drunk in various places in Skipton and he had done nothing to warrant such "persecution".

Hall's barrister Simon Anderson told the court: "The terms sought are punitive. They are seeking to punish him without a crime being committed."

Reynoldson denied that she was a drug addict and fought back tears as she told how she slept rough under a flyover on the Western Bypass after she was evicted from Gladstone Street. She said she lay on concrete because she had nowhere else to go.

She strongly denied baring her chest to staff at Morrisons when she lived opposite to the store in a flat at Belle Vue Terrace. "I would never do that in a million years," she said.

Mr Mewies said: "In the 21st century we have people like my client who is forced to sleep out in the open on the concrete under a bypass."

He said that at almost 52 years of age she had no possessions and was sleeping out in the open.

Reynoldson said she had since lived in the Leeds area and had her name on the housing list in that city.

Both said they had tried over the years to address their alcohol problems without long-term success.