AN Acomb man has been banned from whole of York for 18 months to keep him away from drugs and the drug underworld.

Joshua James Michael McCarthy, 26, has been drug free for two months since he moved to a Salvation Army hostel in Bradford, York Crown Court heard.

He was appearing for sentence after he was caught with a knuckleduster in a street off Nunnery Lane earlier this year.

“Since moving to Bradford he is extremely happy there,” his barrister Eddison Flint told Recorder Margia Mostafa.

“He has been drug free for two months, put on weight and he feels much better in himself.

“The chance you gave him on the last occasion appears to have been grabbed with both arms.”

In July the judge deferred sentence for three months for McCarthy, formerly of Acomb, to prove that he could lead a law-abiding life.

On his return to court she gave him a four-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition he does 20 days’ rehabilitation days and a three-month nightly curfew from 9pm to 7am.

She also banned him from entering York for 18 months.

McCarthy, now of Bradford, pleaded guilty to carrying an offensive weapon.

Because he had a previous conviction for carrying a weapon in public, he faced a minimum of six months in prison under anti-knife laws, unless the judge decided it was not in the interests of justice.

After reading a “glowing” report from the Salvation Army on McCarthy’s work rehabilitating himself, she decided not to impose the six-month sentence.