A 33-YEAR-OLD man suffered a curfew nightmare after police raided his house and locked him out.

A court heard Paul Lomax returned home to comply with his electronically tagged curfew only to discover that police had forced entry to his house through the front and back doors and then boarded them up before leaving.

By the time he had broken into his own home he was half an hour late for his curfew.

And the police added insult to injury when they came again at 5am and arrested him for breaching bail.

“It was like a bad dream,” said Lomax, of Clarence Street, Blackburn.

“Neighbours told me the police had come round in riot gear with shields and everything and took both doors off their hinges.

“I still don’t know what they were looking for or what they wanted or if they had got the right house,” Lomax told Blackburn Magistrates Court.

“When I got home, in good time for my curfew, the doors were boarded up and I thought I had been evicted or something,” said Lomax.

“I have contacted the police and asked why they did it and who will pay for the repairs but they said they couldn’t answer me.”

Lomax said by the time he had borrowed some tools and broken into his own home he was late for his curfew.

“When the police knocked me up at 5am and arrested me I couldn’t believe it,” said Lomax.

“It was the police’s fault I was late for my curfew in the first place.”

Catherine Allan, prosecuting at Blackburn magistrates, said she was happy for Lomax to be rebailed on the same conditions.