AN alcoholic is back behind bars – just three weeks after a judge told him he was in the last chance saloon.

Neville Dickinson, 63, was given a suspended prison sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court on January 5 for breaching his Asbo.

He then got help from the April Centre, a homelessness charity, who found him accommodation and helped him to sign up for benefits.

But Dickinson breached his Asbo again when caught drinking a can of Special Brew near St Botolph’s Circus roundabout, Colchester, on Monday.

He was jailed for four months after admitting the latest breach at Colchester Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Dickinson, who had been jailed in September, has a 50- year history of offending, resulting in 159 court appearances for more than 300 offences, mostly drink-related.

In 2005, he received an Asbo banning him from drinking in the street.

Lucy Osborne, mitigating, told the court Dickinson had made significant progress and has been visiting her office and the April Centre every day.

She had taken him to a foodbank and he attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

She said: “We are asking him to turn his back on everything and everyone he has known for 20 years.

“To ask him to change every aspect of his lifestyle in a matter of days is perhaps a little unrealistic. He has made huge progress. He remained sober for five days.”

She said when Dickinson was arrested he was not drunk, abusive or causing any nuisance.

She asked the magistrates to consider not activating the suspended sentence.

Miss Osborne said: “A lot of people have put in a lot of hours to get him to this point.

It would be a great shame for that to be lost when he was starting to show signs of turning his life in a different direction.

“He will serve a short amount of time in prison and then will come out to the same situation and the whole process will need to start again. This is the best chance he’s had.”

However, magistrates decided to activate the sevenmonth suspended sentence for four months. The sentence was shortened because of progress Dickinson had made.

He will serve at least half of that time in custody, and the rest could be spent on licence.

Neil Munson, chairman of the bench, said: “We’ve listened to everything Miss Osborne has said on your behalf.

“However, we can also see youwere in court recently and the same things were said then.”