A JUDGE decided not to re-impose a curfew on a man who failed to comply with a suspended sentence after saying it cost the taxpayer too much.

When Simon Hutchings, 26, was spared jail for burgling his girlfriend's house he was told to be indoors from 9pm to 7am for 12 weeks.

But after Hutchings failed to get home on time on three occasions, once getting back at 1am, the probation service asked for another curfew to be imposed.

When he was brought back before the court for breaching the suspended sentence Judge Peter Blair told him: "I am aware tagging costs the public a great deal."

Instead he fined Hutchings £60 as a punishment, after ruling it would be unjust to activate the 16-month jail term, when the case came before him at Swindon Crown Court.

Matthew Scott, for probation, said Hutchings, of Marlborough Court, Royal Wootton Bassett, was put on the curfew, with supervision and alcohol treatment, in March.

Although he attended appointments during the day he failed to get home for 9pm three times in May, once not arriving back until 1.05am.

Mr Scott said the probation service were content to keep working with him but the breach of the order needed to be marked with a punishment.

"Could it be marked with a fresh curfew of four weeks, though obviously it is a matter entirely for Your Honour," he said.

The law says breaches of suspended sentences must be met with activation unless it would be unjust to do so.

James Burke, defending, said his client had got off alcohol and was taking pills which would make him ill if he drank after taking them.

He said he had recently got full time work as a builder with a firm in Royal Wootton Bassett, earning about £250 a week, and asked for any new curfew to end at 6am.

But the judge said he thought tagging would cost the public purse and told Hutchings he would have to pay a fine.

He said: "You know from sentence that breaches of this sentence would potentially send you to prison but you have made some effort to get things in your life sorted out.

"I am not going to squash that. I am going to impose a £60 fine for the breach and £40 costs for today's probation representation. You will pay it at £20 a month."

Hutchings, who has a previous conviction for burglary, had been drinking heavily when he burgled his girlfriend's house just hours after being released from the police station.

He had been let out of the cells after being arrested for damaging the woman's oven door during an argument at her home in Royal Wootton Bassett.

He then scrambled over a gate to get through the open back door of the house on Glenville Close while she was at home.

Once inside the property he sneaked about undetected and stole a set of keys and a bank card, neither of which have ever been recovered.

At first he denied the offence, despite his DNA being found on the jacket used to scale the gate, only pleading guilty on the morning of his trial.