A PROLIFIC offender who was the first person in Furness to be given an ASBO is back behind bars after he burgled a family's house while they slept. 

Daniel Green, who has previously been described as a "one man crime spree", was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison earlier this week.

The 29-year-old pleaded guilty to residential burglary at a home in Tantabank, Dalton, on June 14.

He entered the property by an unsecured patio door while the owners were asleep, before being disturbed by the occupier.

Following a police investigation, Green, of Hartington Street, Dalton, was arrested and charged.

In 2002, Furness Magistrates' Court slapped its first ever ASBO on the former Chapel Street Infant School pupil. 

Then only 16 - below the standard age at which offenders can be identified in the media - magistrates publicly named and shamed Green in order to warn the public. 

He then already had more than 70 criminal convictions, was serving his fourth youth custody sentence, and was described as "the most dangerous boy in south Cumbria". 

Police this week said it would not be "an easy task" to assimilate all his convictions to date. 

Temporary south Cumbria Detective Inspector, Jason McKenna, said that crime locally was quite low compared to other areas, but figures increase when Green is out of jail. 

He said: "This week we had Daniel Green in court. Every time he comes out of prison crime figures go up as he starts committing offences almost immediately."

In 2003, aged 17, Green threatened the Evening Mail with the courts to keep his name out of the paper, but following legal advice, the Mail took the decision to name him in order to protect the public. 

At age 19, having committed 86 offences by that time, Green told the Evening Mail he wouldn't go back to jail, saying: "I will not get into more trouble and I'm going to keep myself busy."

Speaking after Green's latest imprisonment, DC Sly McNally, of Barrow CID, said: "This sentence sends a clear message to those intent on committing such crimes that the police will leave no stone un-turned in their pursuit for justice and to protect members of the public."