Police yesterday won a court order banning a town's most persistent prostitute from the streets.

Bernadette Isherwood, 33, works the streets of Middlesbrough as a blonde, brunette and redhead wearing long wigs over her dark hair.

She has even propositioned churchgoers and taxi drivers, and children pelted her with eggs to drive her from near their homes.

Vice squad officer Caroline Walls voted her the prostitute who was the biggest nuisance among the town's 150 street girls.

Night shift workers clocking off at 5am find her waiting to offer sex for £30.

Cleveland Police yesterday won an application for a three-year anti-social behaviour order.

The move means she is banned from the town centre except between 10am and noon and for visits to court, her solicitor, doctor, dentist, probation officer and social services.

If she breaks the order she risks a maximum £5,000 fine or a five-year jail sentence.

The application under the Crime and Disorder Act said that her behaviour was likely to cause harassment, or distress.

It marked the culmination of a joint crackdown on prostitution between Cleveland Police and Middlesbrough Council.

The victory allows officials to press ahead with plans to seek similar orders against other prostitutes.

Teesside Magistrates' Court heard that Isherwood had nine convictions in six months last year for loitering on a stretch of Borough Road, Middlesbrough.

Inspector Gary Gamesby, head of the Cleveland Police vice unit, said last night: "She is number one of our top ten most persistent prostitutes and we plan to seek similar orders on the others."

Workers on business parks complained to the police about having to move used condoms and tissues every morning, and that early customers were touted as they arrived at fruit and veg wholesalers.

Her barrister, Elizabeth Mendoza, said: "There is no proof that Miss Isherwood is responsible for any of that."

Heroin addict Isherwood, of Carlow Street, Middlesbrough, who lives with her partner, did not attend court for the two-day hearing.

District Judge James Prowse said : "Prostitution is a 24-hour operation in Middlesbrough, unlike other towns and cities where it is a night-time thing."

He added: "If the order is going to work it is going to work in three years, she will be out of the area, off the drugs or she will he back in court."