A NEIGHBOURHOOD menace who threatened police with a pickaxe could soon be free again instead of serving the two-year jail sentence his crime merited, a court heard.

But Lee Raymond Powell, 19, will be banned for five years from the York estate he has terrorised, Judge Scott Wolstenholme said. And his freedom will be tightly controlled under an intensive control change programme (ICCP) supervised by probation officers.

Powell, formerly of Chapelfields Road, Acomb, denied affray, but was convicted by a York jury in November.

The judge told York Crown Court sitting at Leeds that Powell was a "persistent criminal" and that many of his victims came from the Chapelfields estate. His crimes showed an "anti-social attitude and contempt for the law".

On May 14, he had rushed out of his home towards police officers brandishing a heavy pickaxe on May 14. He drove it into the ground, shouted abuse at the officers and when they sprayed CS gas at him, slammed the axe into a fence post near to them.

Then he fled into the house and escaped out the back.

Normally, he would have got a two-year jail term, but since the incident, magistrates had jailed him for ten months for a catalogue of offences including a public order offence and he had to take that into account, the judge said. In a bid to stop him offending in future, he wanted to make a community rehabilitation order including the ICCP, which is a intensive programme of surveillance, and means Powell would have many hours of work with probation staff a week.

The judge also revealed that he intends to make an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) banning Powell from going into the area bounded by Wetherby Road, Ridgeway and Askham Lane, though he will be allowed to walk down the three roads.

The court heard Powell has a long list of criminal convictions, including threatening a store detective when caught shoplifting lager, resisting police, driving while disqualified and burglary.

Powell will be sentenced on February 7 after he finishes his current sentence, as he cannot be given the ICCP sentence until then.

His barrister, Dan Cordey, said the Powell family have now left Chapelfields and Powell did not contest the ASBO. He did not want to go back behind bars and he now appreciated he had to reform. When sober, he was a "pleasant" person.

Updated: 10:55 Saturday, January 08, 2005