A HOUSEHOLDER went to war against drug addicts and troublemakers by booby-trapping his property with alarm mines.

Paul Humphreys made trip wires attached to blank cartridges along his garden path, constantly used as a short cut by local youths.

For 18 months, Humphreys' unofficial Neighbourhood Watch scheme kept at bay the louts who had littered his garden with syringes and disturbed the peace of Hazel Avenue, Darwen.

Every night at 11pm, he set the trip wires which ran across the path from his house to two sheds and an outside toilet. Security lights ensured that anyone walking down the path saw notices warning 'Alarms, Mines, Keep Out.' Every morning at 6am, when his wife went to work, Humphreys dismantled the wires.

But the balloon went up when a police officer searching for stolen property accidentally triggered one of the alarms which detonated with a loud bang and a flash.

Darwen police, fearing one of their officers had been shot, launched a major alert, blitzed the area with firearms specialists and sealed off the avenue.

Yesterday Humphreys, a 43-year-old father, admitted criminal damage to a police officer's jacket. He was fined £100 with £54 costs and ordered to pay £75 compensation by Blackburn magistrates. Police were instructed to confiscate and destroy the three mines. Elizabeth Reed, prosecuting, said officers searching the property were told by Humphreys' wife there were no keys for the sheds and toilet.

PC David Wilson was unscrewing the bolt from the shed door which faced the garden path when there was a sudden loud bang and flash and he felt his fleece jacket burning.

Mrs Reed said he could see a small hole in the toilet door. Behind the hole was a metal device screwed to the wall which consisted of a blank shotgun cartridge, a spring and a pin held under tension above the cartridge primer.

Lengths of nylon fishing line linked the cartridge to a cup hook on the kitchen wall which was the anchor point for the trip wire mechanism.

Mrs Reed said PC Wilson decided not to open any more doors but called the firearms department and scenes of crime officers.

Paul Schofield, defending, said Humphreys had pleaded guilty on the basis of recklessness but had never intended harming anyone or causing damage.

He told the bench Humphreys bought the three mines for £5 each after seeing them advertised in shooting magazines. Two were installed in the path pointing vertically but he accepted the third was not installed 100 per cent correctly because it protruded horizontally from the toilet wall.

Mr Schofield said: "All his neighbours welcomed this installation because everyone on Hazel Avenue was annoyed by the constant passage of troublemakers.

"They all knew about the device and thought it was a good idea. It was an unofficial Neighbourhood Watch scheme.

"Over a period of time the people who used to cut through his garden got the message. The positioning of the security devices did the trick."

On the Saturday afternoon, when police carried out what the solicitor described as a fruitless search for stolen goods, the action of forcing the shed door triggered off a single alarm mine.

Mr Schofield added: "He will not even consider dabbling with these devices again because of the actions of the police and the traumatic effect this had on the family."

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