A BLACKPOOL pensioner sent to prison over his refusal to curb his rubbish hoarding habits is now homeless after squatting at his former home.

Dennis Bostock -- nicknamed The Blackpool Womble -- was arrested by court bailiffs on July 14, after committing a number of offences under the Environmental Protection Act.

During a six-year period the 66-year-old ran up £12,000 in council clearing costs and ignored a High Court injunction prohibiting him from storing cast-offs at his former Bloomfield Road home.

After being released early from a three-month jail sentence back in August he tried to go back home but -- due to a court order enabling the council to sell the property -- ended up living rough inside his old semi-detached house for five weeks.

Mr Bostock -- who was recently in hospital for a week with a serious infection --was arrested by police on Friday, October 24, following complaints from neighbours and remained in custody at Blackpool Police Station until Monday (October 27).

He says is now facing life on the streets after council legal officials confirmed the property has been sold to cover his outstanding fines.

But they claim they are unable to hand over the left-over profits until yet another clean-up operation has been conducted at the premises (on October 30) -- at Mr Bostock's expense.

Mr Bostock said: "I've got nowhere to go and the weather is getting colder and colder. I didn't even want to leave prison early because I was treated very nicely there. I had my own TV and the food was just like you get in a cafe.

"The council didn't tell me that the house had been sold otherwise I wouldn't have tried to live there again.

"I just thought it was madness for me to be cold and wet sleeping rough when I could stay dry at my old house."

A council spokesman said: "We can confirm that the property has been sold and yet another clean up operation will need to be conducted by our environmental health team.

"This will be the fourth time we have had to do this.

"Mr Bostock may have only been staying at the house for a few weeks but, after looking around the property, we were amazed at what he had achieved in such a short space of time."