A MAN with the longest record a judge had ever seen was jailed for 12 months yesterday.

Homeless Michael Williams, 52, had 229 previous convictions for more than 400 offences, including 20 breaches of anti-social behaviour orders (Asbo), about half of them for criminal damage.

He was blacklisted by every housing provider on Teesside, so he committed crimes to get a prison bed, said his lawyer.

Williams, whose convictions date back to 1977, is subject to an Asbo which runs until January 2010, said Sue Jacobs, prosecuting.

She told Teesside Crown Court: "On April 21, he walked into Middlesbrough police station and told staff that he had just smashed a 1ft-square window in the library.

"That is what he tends to do - to hand himself in for criminal damage. He said that he wanted to get himself sorted out in prison."

Mrs Jacobs said that the maximum penalty for an Asbo breach was five years in jail.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said that because Williams was blacklisted, his choice was to sleep rough or to commit offences.

He added: "Her Majesty has never refused him a bed in the past.

"During the warmer months, he is able to accept sleeping rough.

"If he has a bed, then he will tell you that he has no reason to commit offences."

During his latest remand in Holme House Prison, Williams learned of an organisation in Leeds which helps people like him.

Mr Constantine told the judge: "He tells me that he has spent far too much of his life homeless or in prison.

"He is trying to break the circle.

He realises that he has to move elsewhere and he is prepared to take that step.

"He wants to make a fresh start. He realises for obvious reasons that it has to be out of the area."

The judge, Recorder Neil Davey, told Williams: "I have never seen a record as long as yours.

"You are plainly a man who has absolutely no intention of obeying court orders when it suits you. Your attitude is serious.

Doing the best I can, there has to be a sentence of imprisonment."

Williams, of no fixed address, was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to the April 21 criminal damage and breach of his Asbo made on January 7.