A grandfather who waged a three-year campaign of intimidation against neighbours has been evicted from his home in Castleford.
Prolific criminal Del Midgeley’s drug and booze-fuelled behaviour left residents near his first-floor flat on Pontefract Road too terrified to leave their homes.
Wakefield Magistrates’ Court heard police had been called to the 42-year-old’s privately rented flat 26 times in the last three years.
Midgeley – a father-of-eight who has 17 grandchildren – regularly started bonfires in his garden to burn plastic from metal cable.
Neighbours complained of acrid back smoke and of wheeled bins stuffed full of metal cable surrounding Midgeley’s property.
Residents saw fighting, had to put up with Midgeley playing loud music in the early hours and said he would fire an air rifle in to an alleyway behind his flat.
Wakefield Council applied for a closure order after receiving dozens of complaints from residents.
District judge Maries Mallon granted the order and police boarded up the flat.
Jude Mallon handed Midgeley a two-year antisocial behaviour order, banning him from the Smawthorne area of Castleford for two years
The order also bans him from burning cable on any premises.
One neighbour told police: “I was upset, not being able to sit in the garden with my children without listening to swearing.”
Another told officers: “I Didn’t like to walk past him with my son. Felt afraid, scared.”
Midgeley has a string of previous criminal convictions for offences including grievous bodily harm, assault, fraud, theft and possessing and supplying drugs.
Coun Maureen Cummings of Wakefield Council, said: “This resident had been making life a misery for the community for years and we could not let this go on any longer. I hope the action we have taken will be a warning to other people that we will not tolerate anti-social behaviour and will take action.”