A FAMILY of travellers have been warned they will be locked up if they breach their antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) just one more time.

In court, members of the Smith family admitted breaking an ASBO imposed to curb their unruly lifestyle.

Magistrates warned the four "family heads" that if they ever breached the order again, they would go straight to jail.

David, 58, Thomas, 27, Richard, 26, and 20-year-old Rebbie all pleaded guilty to two breaches of the order, by camping on the same patch of private land near York twice in 12 months.

Each was given a £100 fine, to be paid off in full within one year, but Scarborough magistrates told them: "If you breach the conditions again, it will be a custodial sentence. You will go to jail."

Fred McManus, antisocial behaviour co-ordinator for Safer Ryedale, spearheaded the original ASBO, imposed at Pickering Magistrates Court in August 2005.

It was one of the first orders of its kind to target an entire family unit.

Police had received hundreds of complaints from residents about the squalor and mess in which the Smiths live.

The family had repeatedly ignored requests to moderate their behaviour - and even a High Court injunction in 2003 had failed to stop them.

Mr McManus was asked to address the court after the Smiths' guilty pleas, and outlined the many problems for local communities that the family's behaviour had created.

After the case, Mr McManus told the Evening Press: "Although there may be some disappointment in the community that a custodial sentence was not awarded, the court made it very clear to the defendants that any future breach of the order will result in a prison sentence.

"I shall be working very closely with the police in Ryedale to ensure that the order is not breached.

"If it is, however, appropriate action will be taken."

The Smiths breached their ASBO on January 17 this year, when they camped on land belonging to the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust at Flaxton, near York, without the consent of the owner.

They had also already camped on that land less than a year previously, and therefore broke another of the terms of the order.

Last month the Evening Press interviewed the Smith family - a few weeks after they breached their ASBO.

At the time, Robin Smith, 23, said: "We try to follow the rules of the ASBO, but it is hard to remember exactly where we've been and work out what a mile away is.

"Most of us were born around Malton and we have other family here, so we want to stay. I've never thought about leaving this lifestyle or getting a council house."

- The terms of the ASBO

DESPITE being breached twice, the Smiths' ASBO remains in force. The order forbids the four named family heads from stopping for more than three weeks on any roadside verge, or at all in the area around the villages of Warthill, Sand Hutton and Gate Helmsley, near York. They are also banned from:

allowing any of their vehicles to remain on private land without permission

allowing any of their animals to eat hedgerows

returning to previously occupied land within one year

leaving litter in public places

taking gateposts for firewood.

Updated: 11:21 Wednesday, March 15, 2006