Shop ban for 'estate blight' gang

The gang were banned from hanging around the shop for two years

A gang who blighted the lives of people on a Ramsgate housing estate have been issued with anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos), it has been revealed.

Danny Holloway, 18, Jay Holloway, 22, Aston Cocks, 16, Ricky Diggins, 15, and Alan Meechan, 22, have been banned from hanging around a Newington shop.

The group are said to have used harassment, intimidation, and threatening and abusive behaviour.

They were also ordered not to meet with people they had previously terrorised.

It is the highest number of Asbos that that have been applied at the same time in Kent.

his gang was making life miserable for residents on the Newington estate Zita Wiltshire

Thanet Community Safety Partnership spent a year gathering evidence from CCTV footage and statements from witnesses.

The group, who all live in and around the Newington area of Ramsgate, cannot meet with two or more other people or threaten, insult, abuse people, throw missiles or damage property.

The five were prohibited from standing on the pavement outside the Spar shop in The Centre in Newington. Both orders run until 20 August 2011.

They were also banned from entering the Spar shop for a year.

District Judge Turner sanctioned the orders at Folkestone Magistrates' Court.

Following the hearing on Friday, Thanet District councillor Zita Wiltshire said: "This gang was making life miserable for residents on the Newington estate and we've worked hard - and very closely - with local residents to help bring that gang culture to an end.

"It has taken a long time to get this result, but now that we have got a result, it should help to improve people's lives on the Newington estate."