AN ALCOHOLIC who made the life of flat tenants a misery has gone into rehab.

John Bailey, 43, was fined £100 by magistrates after he admitted being drunk and disorderly and damaging the door of a 76-year-old woman's apartment at flats off Montague Street in Blackburn last week.

Neighbours said Bailey, of no fixed address, had slept rough in communal areas and made life a misery for residents in the complex on and off for three years.

They joined councillors in branding the decision not to hand him an ASBO banning him from the area 'a disgrace'.

However, Bailey’s solicitor Basharat Ditta said his client had agreed to enter rehabilitation offered by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council and its social services department.

Mr Ditta welcomed the decision and said he hoped Bailey would now get the help he needed.

He said: “I've been representing this man for a number of years. Each time he comes in before the Criminal Justice System to be dealt with it's for offences that do not carry custodial sentences.

So in relation to any community custody, supervision is not available.

“He gets drunk, he gets taken to the police station, taken to court, given financial penalties and a discharge and then 'off you go'.

“I have long raised to the courts that this man may be a nuisance but he is unwell. He is an alcoholic, which in my view is an illness.

“Now he will receive the sort of assistance that I suggested he should have been given from day one.

“I am just a little disappointed that it took a newspaper headline to get them to act.”

Mr Ditta admitted that social services had worked hard with Mr Bailey before and had offered him a place in an hostel in Manchester but said that his client was unable to take the accomodation.

A Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council spokesman said it could not discuss individual cases.