A DRUNK has been ordered to leave Haslingden and cried as a court was told it should save his life.

Glaswegian Derek Maxwell, 33, who is said to have wreaked havoc in the town with a catalogue of drunken behaviour and damage, was sent by Burnley magistrates to a rehabilitation centre in Birmingham and must stay there for 18 months.

The bench had been told how his chronic alcohol problem was killing him and he needed some "tough love".

The court heard how life at the church-run centre for those with addictions would not be easy for the defendant he would not be able to drink or smoke but he promised the bench he would give it his best shot.

Maxwell, of Bury Road, Haslingden, appeared before the justices after admitting two more breaches of a three-year criminal anti-social behaviour order imposed on April 13.

Two weeks ago he had been jailed for 28 days for flouting the ASBO twice just days after it was made.

Yesterday, the defendant was given an 18-month community order with supervision.

He must live at the Betel community and abide by its rules.

The police, who together with medics, the probation service and Maxwell's solicitor have fought long and hard to help him conquer his alcoholism, were standing by to take him there.

Maxwell was earlier given the ASBO to bring a bit of peace to Haslingden and also to stop him being found "dead in a ditch".

Under its terms he was banned from being drunk and disorderly in public and was not allowed in certain licensed premises and medical centres.

His past antics have included standing in the middle of Deardengate with a bedsheet around his neck threatening self harm, abusing police and leaving a Securicor driver shocked and worried by making it look as if he had a gun.

Bill Rawstron, defending, told the court it was essential the community order was imposed on Maxwell.

A multi-agency meeting of a consultant psychiatrist, clergy and probation staff had agreed imposing lenient sentences on the defendant was not sending him the right message.

Maxwell had been in tears at the prospect of the rehabilitation centre.

Mr Rawstron, who also attended the meeting, went on: "He says he will try. He will go and he will see if he can adhere to this."

Mr Rawstron said if the defendant returned to Haslingden he would be drinking that night and out on the streets abusing people because others would wind him up to do so.

The solicitor continued: "I don't want to read in the local paper in six months time that he has been found dead in a doorway.

"I have known him a long time and he's too nice for that."