YOBS have pushed a York "good neighbour" to breaking point with a hate campaign.

The onslaught was apparently launched in revenge after he stepped in to stop an act of vandalism in his street.

Last night thugs threw a brick through the man's window - even as a police van was parked outside while officers investigated a previous incident.

The victim says he has considered boarding up his home of 12 years and moving out. His local councillor is appalled, and says the authorities seem "helpless" in the face of the thuggery.

The man, who did not want to be identified, said he has had 11 windows broken, including two last night and two attempted burglaries at his property in the Hull Road area.

He has been spat at, and abuse has been hurled at him over the past 18 months - but he cannot identify the culprits.

He said he has spent about £4,000 on improved security, on top of increased insurance premiums.

He is convinced the attacks were directly linked to an incident 18 months ago when he caught two youths breaking windows in his neighbour's house and he punched one of them, for which he received a police caution.

Police have not been able to prove a direct link, despite installing a surveillance camera on his property for six months in an effort to identify the culprits.

The 46-year-old IT consultant said he now regretted standing up to the vandals, and was at breaking point following last night's mayhem.

He said: "I didn't know what was going on. Something just hit the premises while I was talking to the officer, I didn't know if it was a brick, a fire bomb, I didn't know if there was a gang of them.

"The criminals have got no respect for the police and I'm getting to the point where I have got no respect for them either."

The victim is considering boarding up the property and moving in with his partner or a friend, despite the detrimental affect this would have on the neighbours.

"Sometimes I feel a prisoner in my own home. My partner says to come down and stay with her, but I get the feeling in the pit of my stomach that my house is going to get torched.

"I'm a fairly strong character and when I go to work I keep these things to myself and think it's only a window, it's not my life, but it's always going to be in the back of my mind."

Ward councillor Derek Smallwood said: "It all started off some months ago when he caught some youths breaking windows on another property. Since then he's been subject to the attacks himself.

"I'm bothered that someone in the city is being subjected to this sort of pressure and we appear to be helpless to do something about it. We are desperate throughout the city, not just in my area, to get people to be witnesses to crime and to give them any protection we can in order to safeguard them when they do take this stand.

A police spokesman said: "This resident has been a repeat victim." Since last September there had been 22 incidents in the same road, not all of them at this property.

"A possible step would be to target the area for anti-social behaviour and criminal activity, with additional officers put in there at certain times, but it all depends on resources."

Updated: 11:25 Thursday, March 21, 2002