AN alcoholic with a long history of drink-fuelled criminal activity has been locked up after he continued to flout chances given by the courts.

Mark Dooley, 55, who has 91 convictions for 189 offences, was found by police officers to be blocking the entrance to a pizza house in North Station Road, Colchester, on July 6.

Ipswich Crown Court heard he was drunk and hurling obscenities at passing members of the public, as well as at restaurant staff.

He was arrested for breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from Colchester town centre.

The order was put in place in January last year and also prohibits Dooley from behaving in an anti-social manner.

In police interview he said he had no recollection of the event.

He also acted in breach of a suspended sentence order which was imposed after he attacked a former partner.

The court heard Dooley was in breach of a community order imposed following an incident in July 2020 when he attacked a mask-wearing member of the public in Ingatestone, after he told the stranger “Covid-19 isn’t real”.

He was also in breach of a conditional discharge imposed after police found him lying drunk on the pavement in Head Street, Colchester, in June.

In mitigation, the court heard Dooley’s offending is fuelled by a dependence on alcohol which began 17 years ago.

The court heard he has not had a drink for seven weeks while in custody.

Jailing Dooley, of no fixed address, for 24 weeks, Recorder Graham Huston said: “I don’t know how many times a court has said to you you’ve got a shocking record.

“It is shocking and what I have learned from looking through page after page after page is the courts have bent over backwards to try and be lenient with you.”

He said Dooley’s behaviour was “extremely upsetting” for members of the public.

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