A FORMER acrobat's high-flying life has come to earth with a bump after he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly and placed in police cells for two nights.

Magistrates heard that vagrant Mustapha El-Jevari, a familiar personage on the streets of Fareham, had been a former circus acrobat with the greatest circuses in the world, but was now an alcoholic.

He had been convicted 67 times of being drunk and disorderly and similar anti-social behaviour offences in the past three years, said prosecutor Roger Venton.

El-Jevari, 33, originally from Moro-cco, now of no fixed abode, admitted being drunk and disorderly in West Street, Fareham. He was arrested and placed in police custody last Saturday.

Anthony Hetherington, for El-Jevari, said he was an alcoholic who had no home. He lived in car parks, park ben-ches and graveyards and since leaving the circus spent a lot of his time drinking in Fareham's pubs, where he was an accomplished acrobat.

He understood English well, but was not confident speaking it and this hindered his search for help. Other courts had placed him in jail for the night and fined him for similar offences.

El-Javari had sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous, which worked temporarily, but he was too embarrassed about his unkempt appearance to continue.

He received income support, but needed somewhere to live to have a chance of a job and was applying for housing benefit, said Mr Hethering-ton.

He explained the break-up of a relationship at the height of his prowess on the high wire sparked the decline and the end of his career.

Magistrates fined El-Javari £25 but said his time in custody was punishment enough and did not impose payment of the fine.