A PUBLIC nuisance with a truly horrendous criminal record has been sent back to prison.

Regular Warrington Guardian readers will be well aware of Shaun Scanlon, who has appeared before the courts a countless number of times.

The 48-year-old is a regular reoffender, and he was made the subject of a criminal behaviour order in September last year.

Such orders are handed down to serial criminals who engage in persistent anti-social behaviour, to offer protection for communities from the debilitating impacts such behaviour has.

But Scanlon was hauled before Chester Magistrates’ Court recently for breaching his criminal behaviour order, which he admitted.

The defendant did so in Warrington town centre on October 2, the court heard from Georgia McGinlay, prosecuting.

He was reported on Horsemarket Street – something which is perfectly legal for normal, law-abiding people, but illegal for Scanlon due to his past behaviour.

The court heard of his staggering number of previous convictions, which include numerous court order breaches.

He has previously been locked up for being drunk and disorderly in public, spitting in his police cell and assaulting a shopkeeper by putting him in a headlock.

Before then, he was jailed for threatening to stab a friend while intoxicated and brandishing two kitchen knives.

He also has convictions for carrying knives in separate incidents and smashing a window at the Firkin Tap pub on Buttermarket Street.

For his latest criminal behaviour order breach, magistrates remarked that the defendant has a ‘flagrant disregard for court orders’, adding that immediate imprisonment was inevitable.

Scanlon, of no fixed abode, but of Warrington, was handed 10 weeks behind bars.