A HOMELESS man smashed eight windows at City Hall with a golf club because he was at "the end of his tether" with Bradford Council's housing department, a court heard today.

Paul Dass told police who arrested him that the authority's housing section "had been messing him about", "taking him for a fool" and not taking his problems seriously.

Bradford and Keighley Magistrates' Court heard that 45-year-old Dass had been drinking and was angry at the Council when he smashed the windows, causing about £2,000 of damage, on December 22 last year.

He was arrested two weeks later on January 5.

The court was told that Dass' anger came after being turned away from City Hall and told instead to go to Bradford Cyrenians, an organisation that aims to tackle homelessness.

Steven Brocklehurst, mitigating for Dass, told the court that since January 2013 his client's life had been a mixture of prison and living on the streets.

Mr Brocklehurst said that Dass had received four separate jail sentences in that period.

He was released from his latest sentence - eight months for possession of a bladed article - last September.

Mr Brocklehurst said: "For the last couple of years, his life has been prison and living rough. That is what happened when he was released from his last custodial sentence.

"He was released in September last year. He had no fixed address to be released to and soon ended up living rough on the streets.

"He had been trying to sort it out through housing without any success. By the time this offence was committed, I think it is fair to say he was at the end of his tether.

"He had had a fair bit to drink, there is no doubt about that. He happened to have this golf club with him and used it in a drunken state trying to make a point about his housing situation."

Dass, whose address was given to the hearing as Cloudsdale Avenue, West Bowling, pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage.

He was released on unconditional bail by magistrates to be sentenced at the same court on February 18.