A WESTON man has avoided returning to jail, despite breaching his ASBO for the sixth time since 2011.

Joshua Shanahan was handed an antisocial behaviour order two years ago after magistrates deemed the public needed protecting because he committed more than 20 acts involving theft, drugs and alcohol.

North Somerset Courthouse was told this week that he broke three of his ASBO conditions in May and June this year by entering parts of Weston he is banned from and being spotted with former friends he is not allowed to meet.

Shanahan’s mother, Rosemary Allen, who he lives with in Marconi Close, said her son had turned his life around after being released from prison in February, after again breaching his ASBO.

She said: “I don’t know what happened when the last time he was in prison. All he has said since is ‘I just want to get back to work’.

“In the past two and half months he has been in Lympsham working with horses.

“I don’t know what’s come over him. It’s been kind of spiritual.”

In May, Shanahan met with two people his 2011 ASBO prohibited him from associating with and he visited Premier Stores in St Andrews Parade the following month - an area he is banned from.

Owen Strickland, defending, said the two meetings were accidental, with one living close by and the other simply walking the other way on the same street.

Ms Allen added that the only reason Shanahan had gone to the shops was to buy milk and top up the gas and electricity for her. She said her son took a taxi there and back and returned home quickly.

Mr Strickland stressed that while Shanahan had committed a crime by breaching the ASBO’s orders, it was a minor one given their innocent nature.

And he questioned the point of sending the 20-year-old to prison after Shanahan had showed he was turning his life around.

Jane Corke, chair of the bench, sentenced Shanahan to a 32-day curfew and ordered him to pay £85 costs and £60 victim surcharge.