A man banned from every pub in Oxfordshire ended up in court by ordering a half pint of lager.

Martin Cox, 48, cannot enter any public house in the county under the terms of a criminal behaviour order imposed last September.

The order, imposed to stop him causing a nuisance, also prevents him from drinking alcohol in a public place.

Appearing before Oxford Magistrates’ Court for his latest breach of the court order, Cox, of Couldrey Close, Abingdon, admitted three breaches of the order, damaging a phone at Abingdon police station and an offence of threatening behaviour.

Mitigating, Will Alexander told the bench his client was autistic and the order ‘made his behaviour, which he can do very little about a lot of the time punishable by imprisonment’.

Cox recognised that drinking alcohol, which he had a habit of doing, resulted in him committing offences.

“He drinks because of his mental health issues and he’s desperately unhappy in his living situation,” Mr Alexander said.

“He’s very lonely, for want of a better word, and he has difficulty understanding exactly how his alcoholism makes life worse for him.

“In his mind it’s the drink that makes him happy rather than it’s the drink that causes him issues.”

He was unhappy in the block where he was living currently and had been targeted by others able to take advantage of him.

When he had been sent to prison in the past he found himself being bullied as a result of his mental health difficulties, the magistrates were told.

However, Mr Alexander said his client now had a probation worker who understood him, was accompanied to court by his mother and had hopes of moving to new accommodation.

Sentencing him to a two year community order, chairman of the bench Caroline Jones told Cox she hoped the probation service would be able to use the 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days imposed as part of the sentence to help him work with local mental health facilities.

“We can just see you going round and round in circles and we don’t want that for you,” she added.

Earlier, prosecutor Karen Cushing said Cox was photographed at a bus stop on Drayton Road, Abingdon, on September 2 by an off duty police officer who saw him with an open can of Frosty Jacks cider in his hand.

On September 14, he became abusive towards staff at Coffee Aroma in Abingdon High Street and damaged a phone at the town’s police station the following day.

The next month, on October 22, he was seen swigging from a can of Frosty Jacks cider in a park and on October 27 he ordered a half pint of lager at the Crown and Thistle pub. Both were breaches of his criminal behaviour order.

As part of his sentence, Cox was given a six month restraining order banning him from Coffee Aroma.

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