A FAMILY from hell were booted out of their squalid, flea-infested Sheffield home after breaching their ASBO for terrorising the neighbours.
Wayne and Ian Hooton, who lived at their mother Susan Hooton's home in Holgate Avenue, Parson Cross, had already fled the council house when police, bailiffs and Sheffield Homes staff arrived to evict them.
Click on the green play button to see the video from the evictionWhen officers broke into the property with a crowbar, a vile stench drifted out of the house.
Piles of rubbish were left in corners, car tyres were strewn across the kitchen floor and graffiti reading 'Hooton Ov Sheff 5' was scrawled on the living room wall.
Furniture and cupboards had been stripped from the property, carpets and walls were engrained with dirt and infested with fleas and bags of rubbish littered the rooms and the gardens. Police covered their noses as they searched the property and recovered a foot long machete and Sheffield Homes staff taped an eviction notice to the front door.
Today neighbours spoke of their relief that mum Susan, who held the tenancy, had finally been evicted and she and her sons had gone.
Resident Valerie Bream, aged 71, said: "This is the happiest day of my life. It has been a nightmare living here for the last three years. I am absolutely over the moon."
Mrs Bream said the family had visitors coming and going at all hours of the day and night, dogs in the property and cars and motorbikes revving their engines on the front garden.
Wayne, 24, and Ian, 22, were slapped with anti-social behaviour orders in September 2007 which banned them from harassing or causing alarm and distress to their neighbours. It also banned them from working on motor vehicles.
But they blatantly flouted the order repeatedly.
Residents said Ian used an angle grinder to cut up cars in front of the house.
They said they were appalled by the smell of the Hootons' collection of Staffordshire Bull Terriers and the rubbish strewn across the garden, which included car tyres, a microwave oven, hub caps and bags of rubbish.
Mrs Bream, who has lived in the street for more than 40 years, added: "They didn't take the dogs out, they just let them soil at the back.
"They had women there and friends visiting at all hours.
"Since the Asbo was imposed they just carried on and gave us dirty looks. I'm over the moon – I want a nice little family in there."
Another neighbour, who didn't want to be named for fear of repercussions, said:
"People are a bit scared of them as some of their friends live on the street.
"There are always people coming and going and cars on the front garden. It's really great they've finally gone."
Coun Bob McCann, Sheffield Council's cabinet member for housing and safer sustainable communities, said:
"We've tried everything possible to help this family change their behaviour.
"Warnings, ASBOs and threats of eviction have all failed to make a difference.
"Eviction is very much a last resort but in some serious cases we really have to take this step for the good of the neighbours.
"No-one should have to suffer like local residents have in this case."
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