A MAN banned from Burnley town centre under a criminal behaviour order has been jailed after ignoring the ban.

Blackburn magistrates heard Paul Manley entered a coffee shop in a drunken state at 9.35am with a bottle of wine in his hand and started shouting and swearing at a young female assistant.

After repeated requests Manley went and sat outside but a customer, known to the assistant as Dylan Bradshaw, told the assistant he had said he was going to smash her face in.

"She felt threatened and retreated behind the counter to call the police," said Tracy Yates, prosecuting.

Manley, 52, of Ash Street, Burnley, pleaded guilty to breaching a criminal behaviour order. He was jailed for 16 weeks and ordered to pay £85 costs and £122 victim surcharge on release.

Mrs Yates said the Costa Coffee assistant had previous dealings with Manley who she said always seemed to be intoxicated. When he came into the store on Thursday he stood in the doorway stopping customers entering or leaving.

Mrs Yates said Manly had 133 previous convictions for a total of 308 offences, most of them related to alcohol and failure to comply with court orders.

David Leach, defending, said on the day of the offence Manly had suffered an alcohol withdrawal seizure and had fallen over and banged his head.

"He came into Burnley to get some money and if he had left by the same route this would not have happened," said Mr Leach.

"He accepts he opened the door at Costa Coffee but denies using the language suggested by the witness. He says he never made any direct threats to her."

Mr Leach said the person who reported what Manley had allegedly said about smashing her face in used to be the defendant's solicitor.

"There was an acrimonious fall out between them," said Mr Leach. "My client says what he was reported to have said was wildly exaggerated."

The sentencing of Manley sparked an unseemly exchange between the chairman of the magistrates and David Leach.

The chairman said he and his colleagues were not impressed with Mr Leach's attempts to "trivialise" Manley's behaviour.

Mr Leach replied that he did not think he tried to trivialise the incident.

"We think you did and that is the court's view," said the chairman.

"I am not going to argue with you."

Mr Leach replied: "I find that remark very insulting. I didn't trivialise what the defendant had done I simply repeated what he had said to me."