A MAN has been jailed for 12 weeks for breaching a civil injunction put in place to tackle anti-social behaviour in Salisbury.

Leon Jason Lewis, 21, of no fixed address, appeared at Salisbury County Court yesterday (28/07).

He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for breaching an interim civil injunction granted by Swindon County Court at the beginning of this month.

The injunction was applied for by Wiltshire Council and supported by Wiltshire Police, and formed part of ongoing work to try to tackle Lewis’ repeat offending.

It prevented him from engaging in anti-social behaviour in The Friary area of the city.

PC Rachel Gunn, from Salisbury Community Policing Team’s neighbourhood team, said this latest measure had been taken as part of ongoing partnership work to address the problems.

She said: “Lewis has a long history of repeat offending, particularly engaging in aggressive and violent behaviour when intoxicated.

“We have carried out numerous attempts to engage with him, but these have been unsuccessful, so we believed this civil injunction would help manage his behaviour and reduce the risk of him offending.

“However, he failed to comply with the terms of the order and was subsequently arrested and sentenced for this.

“This is a good example of partnership working – we have worked closely with the relevant departments at Wiltshire Council, including housing, to ensure we have a joined up approach.”

Simon Hendey, Wiltshire Council's Director of Housing, said: “We hope this sends out a clear message that this sort of anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated.

"We have worked closely with Wiltshire Police to manage this situation and try and keep the local community safe from this type of behaviour.

“We’ll continue this strong partnership working to gather the necessary evidence to enable us to take action where possible to keep our communities safe.”