10:30am UK, Friday February 04, 2005

A gas-gulping petrol addict has been banned from every petrol station in his home town for guzzling four star petrol straight from the pump.

Brian Taylor has been sneaking onto forecourts and slashing pipes to get his fill of fuel and the toxic chemicals that give him a high.

Petrol: It's supposed to go in the car

The 36-year-old has even been caught on security cameras sipping on his favourite tipple before breaking into a dance.

Police have said he has also been known to mix his drinks - having four star and diesel in the same binge.

But doctors say Taylor, of no fixed address, is risking wrecking his central nervous system, heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and bone marrow to get his fix.

Fed up with his fuelling around, magistrates have tried to cut Taylor's habit by issuing him with an anti-social behaviour order and have even banned him from carrying a petrol can in public.

A court in Teesside heard that Taylor, from Middlesborough, has swigged petrol from his local Asda 51 times and has cost the supermarket chain £6,000 in damage and loss of fuel.

When worried staff tried to stop him, he became aggressive and intimidating, magistrates heard.

Sergeant Brian Tams, of Cleveland Police, said: "He has become a nuisance and stinks of petrol. He's got a big problem with it and so do we."