A CONVICTED football hooligan faces another banning order as police try to keep him away from Clarets matches for good.

Norman “Knuckles” Jones is said by police to regularly brag to “whoever will listen” that he is one of the original members of the notorious Burnley Suicide Squad.

Now nearing his 60th birthday, Jones — who has served time behind bars in America — is one of the oldest and most prominent members of what police call the Burnley risk group.

He has already been subject to three banning orders and by an oversight was not banned for life from Turf Moor. His most recent trouble at the club came when he was thrown out after getting in on his son’s cheaper ticket and trying to headbutt a police officer.

Jones, now said to be suffering heart disease and described by his solicitor as “not a well man,” faces the prospect of the latest order when he is sentenced at Burnley Magistrates Court on March 1 for a catalogue of crime which saw him also butting the manager of Tesco.

The defendant, of Williams Road, Burnley, has admitted several theft charges, assault, fraud, using threa-tening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour, racially aggravated harassment and racially aggravated fear of violence. He was bailed for a pre-sentence report and was warned custody was not being ruled out.

Alex Mann, prosecuting, said Jones committed a run of “high end” shoplifting offences. He was racially abusive to staff in Preston Asda when stopped as his accomplice made off with £600-worth of goods. He threatened to knock out and stab staff. Jones was also aggressive to the manager at Burnley Tesco and pushed past him trying to get away with a £291 trolley-load of goods. He headbutted the victim in the jaw, forcing him to go to hospital, and told him he would return the next day. Jones also struck at B and Q in Nelson and Sainsburys.

Richard Taylor, for Jones, said he had an “horrendous“ record, of which he was not proud. Years of cocaine abuse had finally got to his heart and he had heart disease.

PC Diane Murphy, of Operation Fixture, Lancashire police’s football banning unit, said: “A football banning order will certainly make our lives a bit easier.”