A FOOTBALL fan has been barred from attending matches for two years, for mixing with hardcore hooligans.

Police video footage showed Stuart Allan Pinchbeck mixing with known football hooligans at games across the country, over a six-year per-iod.

The 29-year-old, of Park Avenue, Teesville, near Redcar, east Cleveland, did not oppose Cleveland Police's application at a hearing at Teesside Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Despite no video evidence showing his direct involvement in any violent disturbances, Detective Sergeant Ian Fawcett, head of the force's football intelligence unit, told the hearing he had been spotted at a number of games where there had been disorder.

Det Sgt Fawcett's team had compiled an hour of footage that covered games throughout the country, including Middlesbrough's final home game of last season against Tottenham Hotspur, and as far back as a game against Manchester United in 1999.

In mitigation, his solicitor, Simon Walker, said his client, a Middlesbrough fan, only accepted the order as he could not afford to fight the civil case.

He said: "It would appear that Mr Pinchbeck has not done anything. He has been in or around a group that has been involved in police concern surrounding possible disorder.

"I find myself in a difficult position as all the bullets seem to be in guns the police have and none in the one we have to fire."

Magistrate Sonia Brogdon made the two-year order, which bans him from every football ground in the country, despite agreeing that evidence failed to show any direct involvement in violence.

She said: "We agree that the video did not show him at all times, but he contributed with the fighting. He was involved with a group and in some cases he was clearly involved in disorder.

"The police and the public should not be subjected to the sort of behaviour seen on the video."