A 44-YEAR-OLD woman breached an Asbo which banned her from entering a sheltered housing complex where she and others preyed on vulnerable victims.

Blackburn magistrates heard Julie Taylor had been invited to attend the home of an elderly man who she claimed she was helping.

But while the magistrates dealt with the breach with a financial penalty they sent Taylor to prison because the offence put her in breach of a suspended sentence.

Taylor, of Leamington Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to breach of an anti-social behaviour order. She was fined £70 with £30 costs which was set against time in custody and the magistrates imposed eight weeks of the suspended prison sentence.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said a number of people, including Taylor and her partner Michael Phearse McCann, had been made subject to the same Asbo because they had been preying on vulnerable, elderly people.

McCann had been with Taylor at the time of the breach.

And he had already appeared in court and dealt with by a financial penalty.

“On this occasion she was in the sheltered housing scheme from which she was banned,” said Miss Allan. “She was challenged by a Police Community Support Officer and said she had just dropped some papers off for one of the residents.”

Miss Allan said Taylor had been made subject to a suspended prison term in November for two offences of assault. Aftab Bakhat, defending, said it was 12 months since the Asbo was made and there had been no previous breaches.

“She had written a note for this man at his invitation and dropped it at his home,” said Mr Bakhat.

“There is no suggestion any elderly person was being abused or preyed upon.

“If anything the gentleman in question would have been called as a defence witness if this had gone to trial.”

Mr Bakhat said that after the Asbo was imposed and reported in the press Taylor and her partner had been subjected to horrendous acts of violence.

“She says the police are not sympathetic,” said Mr Bakhat.