A THIEF banned from Burnley centre for two years has had an anti-social behaviour order quashed after a judge slammed it as "wholly inappropriate".

Judge Barbara Watson told Burnley Crown Court ASBOs should be imposed if a defendant had caused harassment, alarm or distress - and father of two David Stanley was not guilty of any such conduct.

She said heroin addict Stanley, 36, was irritating to shopkeepers but did not go into stores disturbing people or causing an upset. He did not offer violence and did not shout.

The judge, sitting with two justices, said the ASBO should be revoked.

The appellant, who has 104 previous convictions, had also been jailed for five months but the bench dismissed that part of the appeal and said it was "not a day too long."

Stanley, of Whitegate Close, Padiham, had appealed against a sentence imposed by a district judge at Burnley magistrates' court. He had earlier admitted theft and failing to surrender.

Lynn Waites, prosecuting, told the court Stanley stole a shaver and a razor worth about £100 from Boots in Burnley town centre. In June, Stanley had been given a community rehabilitation order and in August a drug treatment and testing order had been imposed for similar offences.

Miss Waites said under the two-year ASBO, Stanley was banned from going into Burnley town centre, from retail parks and outlets, was not to commit any offence of theft and was not to incite anybody else to steal. The ASBO had been suspended until his release from prison.

Martin Hackett, for Stanley, said the appellant had an appalling record. Although he had not complied with the order the drug testing order, the probation service recommended one should be made.

On his release from prison, he would come out with the same problems.

The barrister said he was "slightly puzzled" over how Stanley had been given an ASBO for theft. There was no allegation he had threatened anybody.

The order was draconian, as the appellant did not have a car and Burnley was the only town centre his family could go to.