A FATHER-OF-THREE could find himself behind bars on Friday for refusing to pay his council tax bill in full, in protest at inflation-busting rate rises.

Forty-year-old Steven Peers, who lives in a Band D property in Woodhall Lane, Welwyn Garden City, was spared jail last year at the eleventh hour when an anonymous benefactor paid off the £17.48 he had withheld from Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council.

This year he has withheld £44.62, the increase in his bill above the rate of inflation, and will appear before Central Herts Magistrates' Court in St Albans on Friday morning.

Mr Peers said: "I am withholding £44.62 in protest at the 128 per cent increase in my annual council tax bill, which has risen from £589.48 in 1996 to a staggering £1,367.95.

"Unless council tax is capped or frozen, by the time my children leave home and I consider retirement my annual bill is likely to be £6000.00."

In March of this year Mr Peers, who says his protest is not politically motivated, was told by magistrates that he had 40 days to pay up or be faced with bailiffs.

He said: "Most upsetting to me is the fact that both my retired parents have to spend over 20 per cent of their meagre incomes every month on council tax alone and they are some of the luckier ones.

"I've met many who spend over 40 per cent of their incomes on council tax.

"That often forces these people to choose between essentials like dental care or even food shopping, or managing to pay this over inflated and poor value tax, for fear of imprisonment.

"I want my council tax bill to actually represent the costs of providing and maintaining the services and amenities that are available to me and businesses locally.

"I believe that the actual cost is at least 30 per cent less than the bills we currently have foisted on us."

A spokesman for Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council said Mr Peers had had "every opportunity" to pay the remainder of his bill.