A MAN who was a drunk nuisance in Watford town centre breached an Asbo just seven days after it was made.

Lee McCarthy also threatened a traffic warden who, he had harassed for many months, blaming her for his predicament.

McCarthy, 38, was jailed for 12 months on Wednesday at Luton Crown Court. He pleaded guilty to three charges of breaching an Asbo.

Alexander Krikler, prosecuting, said magistrates made an interim Asbo on June 7 last year when McCarthy was not present. Two of the conditions were not to cause alarm and distress and not to go within 100 metres of Watford Borough Council offices.

The following day, police read the order to McCarthy, of Leggatts Wood Avenue, Watford, and he said he understood but refused to accept a copy of it.

On June 14, he went into a shop in The Parade and hid a bottle of alcohol under his shirt. The shopkeeper challenged him, and he handed over the bottle and was asked to leave because he was drunk. On the way out he knocked over two display stands.

Police were alerted and saw him get on a bus which they followed. He got off in Croxley View, where he was arrested and later given bail. But on December 5 he breached the order again. One of his restrictions was not to approach Helen Austin or verbally or physically threaten her. Mrs Austin was a traffic warden and also the landlady of a pub from which he was barred.

That day she was working in Market Street when he saw her and threatened to cut her throat.

He was arrested and remanded in custody, said Mr Krikler.

Zoe Van den Bosch, defending, said: "In custody he has been able to reflect on his behaviour and frankly admits he is appalling when in drink. When the order was first made he did not really take it seriously, but then he went for several months without breaching it.

"He was not seeking Mrs Austin out but when he saw her accidentally he saw red. He is now extremely keen to live with his Asbo and knows that if he steps out of line he will receive custody again and again."