A Bradford man is believed to be the first person in the district to be sent to jail for destroying his electronic tagging device.

Leeson Coulson, 29, of Warley Drive, Bradford Moor, was jailed for 21 days by Bradford magistrates for destroying his tag.

He had been placed on curfew for allegedly going equipped to burgle.

But he smashed up the device, staff at Securicor were alerted and Coulson was arrested.

Coulson's solicitor, Phillip Ainge, of Lumb & MacGill & Co, said due to personal reasons his client had to leave the house but did not inform the authorities.

"He couldn't live at his home any more and instead of getting in touch with Securicor, he destroyed the device," said Mr Ainge.

"I think it may be the first time in this area that someone has been sent to jail for this offence." Electronic tagging began in the Bradford district at the start of the year.

A court may sentence an offender to a curfew order for any period from two hours to 12 hours every day.

Electronic monitoring acts as a verification device to find out if offenders are adhering to curfew orders.

It is not a restraint.

Once a court has sentenced someone to a curfew order, a court official will liaise with Securicor Custodial Services' 24-hour Monitoring Centre to arrange the installation of the monitoring equipment.

Superintendent David Collins, of Eccleshill police, said: "At the end of the day, curfews are an important part of our strategy against some crimes, burglary in particular.

"Electronic tagging helps us because we do not have to physical check on these people and can get on with other types of policing. It helps save our resources."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.