A PERSISTENT troublemaker is back behind bars after he defied a court ban and went to Malton Market Place.

Just by being there, Andrew Eddon breached an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) restricting his movements in the town.

He also broke a suspended prison sentence imposed for carrying three bladed articles in public and assaults, and was on bail for drink-driving, driving without any lights on after dark and having powder in his pocket that he believed was cocaine.

At York Crown Court, Judge Jacqueline Davies told him she could not avoid imposing an immediate custodial sentence.

She made him serve eight months of a nine-month suspended prison sentence imposed in March 2011, and gave him concurrent sentences for the new offences.

Eddon, 28, of no fixed address but who has lived in Pickering and Norton, pleaded guilty to drink-driving and careless driving between Malton and Settrington on November 28, 2011, as well as being drunk and disorderly on May 7 this year, breaching the ASBO, and attempted possession of cocaine on May 27.

Eddon’s barrister, Andrew Semple, said his client could be a “good citizen”, as he had shown between 2009 and 2011, but said his marriage had since hit difficulties.

Mr Semple said: “He has a propensity when things go wrong in his life to return to the crutch of alcohol and the subsequent behavioural problems that can lead to.”

On November 28, he had had two pints and been slightly over the alcohol limit when he drove a few miles without any headlights. After his arrest, he had sought help, but in April, his marriage broke up and he “went into a tailspin, drinking heavily”.

Prosecutor Catherine Duffy said when Eddon was arrested in Market Place, he told police the white substance in his pocket was cocaine. However, forensic tests revealed it was not.