FORMER British National Party councillor Luke Smith has been banned from attending football matches for the next two-and-a-half years.

Gas engineer Smith, 22, who is already banned for life from Turf Moor, was slapped with the new ban after magistrates heard he had been involved in around 20 incidents of violence and disorder in the last five years.

The violence related to various incidents at or near grounds where Burnley FC were playing matches.

Smith last month became the only person in Burnley to be banned by law from town centre pub Yates's Wine Lodge when he was made the subject of a rarely-used Licensed Premises Exclusion Order.

The football banning order, which prevents Smith attending any association match in England and Wales until August 2006, was imposed by magistrates in Burnley yesterday after a civil application by Lancashire Police.

So far more than 50 people in the county have been given banning orders ahead of this summer's European Championships in Portugal.

Smith, of Brunshaw Road, must also surrender his passport to police ahead of any England International matches.

He is also prohibited from entering the town centre and streets around Turf Moorfor three hours before and after football matches.

Smith left the BNP in disgrace last year after fighting at the party's rally in Sawley in the Ribble Valley. He is also already banned from town centre pubs as part of the voluntary Pubwatch scheme.