POLICE in Burnley are set to by-pass the criminal justice system as part of a unique bid to ban hooligans from Turf Moor.

Senior officers have employed a barrister from Manchester to compile files of evidence against known troublemakers who police are unable to arrest for a criminal offence.

The thugs will then be issued with a civil summons to attend magistrates court where police will apply to the bench for banning orders.

The move means that troublemakers who are known to the police but have slipped through the net so far because they have avoided arrest can now be banned.

At present, banning orders can be issued by magistrates when someone appears in court charged with a football-related offence such as affray, racial chanting, attempting to enter a sports ground while drunk, being drunk and disorderly, contravening section 4 of the Public Order Act and pitch encroachment.

Burnley Football Club also imposes lifetime bans on anyone convicted of a football-related offence.

The move, thought to be the first time the police have used a civil procedure to crack down on soccer thugs, is part of Operation Fixture, where police target hooligans who have caused problems in the town in the past.

Police chiefs have asked for evidence to be compiled on six known troublemakers who they have struggled to arrest for specific offences.

Chief Inspector Richard Morgan, of Burnley Police, said the civil action would show hooligans there was no escape.

He added: "The increase in the number of arrests and the number of people banned from Turf Moor from last year shows just how successful Operation Fixture has been, but this new approach shows how far we are prepared to go to stamp out the hooligan element in this town.

"There may be people out there who have been involved in disorder in the past and who think they have got away with it but I am here to tell them they have not.

"We know there are individuals whom we may have struggled to get for a specific offence but that we know are engaged in troublemaking.

"We have evidence against these people built up over time which we will be presenting to the courts when we apply for the banning orders."

Burnley police recently secured the first ever custodial sentence for the breach of a banning order when a hooligan from Colne was jailed.

Last year, Nottingham Forest fan Nathan Shaw, 17, was killed in Burnley town centre when he was hit on the head with a bottle as he made his way to the Burnley v Notts Forest match at Turf Moor.

Andrew McNee, 18, of Rossendale was jailed for seven years for the killing earlier this year after admitting manslaughter.

Figures released last month showed Burnley had the second highest number of arrests in the First Division.

Total number of arrests at league and cup games rose from 45 in the 2001-2002 season to 130 last season.

Burnley came ninth out of all the clubs in the country, a table topped by Manchester United with 186 arrests.

Forty eight people are banned from Turf Moor by magistrates with ten cases going through the courts.