A COUNCIL tenant has been barred from his home for three months - along with everyone else - after neighbours complained of drug-taking and disruption associated with his flat.

Lee Dennis Yeomans, 51, is the only person allowed to live at the flat in a block of flats in North Street, central York, with a common street door and separate flat entrances inside, the city’s magistrates heard.

He was in court to hear evidence of six months of nuisance including doors being damaged, frequent visitors to his flat ringing on neighbours’ door buzzers to be let into the building and drug taking in and around the building with discarded syringes left in a communal area.

Outlining incidents between February and August, Victoria Waudby, for City of York Council, said the building had been the scene of a “serious assault” during which ammonia had been discharged. Mr Yeomans had been present but was not responsible, she said.

She said bicycles and bicycle parts had been left in the communal area.

At times, the key fob entrance system enabling residents to go in and out had been damaged, leaving tenants locked out of their homes.

On one occasion, Mr Yeomans had been found in a car near the flat with drug paraphernalia apparently high on drugs, the court heard.

Council officers had spoken to Mr Yeomans but “his behaviour has not improved and the nuisance and criminality has continued,” she said.

Magistrates decided on the balance of probabilities they were justified in making a closure order on Mr Yeomans’ flat, barring everyone including him from entering it until 11.59pm on December 10.

Council officers and police, who supported the council case, immediately went to the flat, shut it up and changed the locks.

Lee-Anne Robins-Hicks for Mr Yeomans, agreed with the facts of the incidents, but disputed that they were his responsibility.

Mr Yeomans had suffered his door being broken when he was burgled, and had reported the incident to police, she said.

Mr Yeomans had regular visitors from carers because he had an ulcerated leg and other health problems and because he was hard of hearing, didn’t hear them sounding his door buzzer, so they rang other buzzers to gain entrance into the building. She also claimed some of the door buzzers were activated by people associated with a different flat.

Mr Yeomans had been sleeping from the effects of his prescribed medication when he was found in the car and had not been taking drugs, she said.

He had not discarded syringes in the communal area nor encouraged others to do so, and the bicycles and bicycle parts were to do with his hobby of repairing bikes and selling them.

The bikes were not stolen, she said.

She alleged that police had left Mr Yeomans’ flat insecure when they arrested him in the summer and other people had got in and used it. He had been in prison for part of the six months.