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which should accompany the defence. If the applicant is not a party to the principal
proceedings, an application to be had a party and for the order must be made to the court in
the same application notice.
Orders made on conviction in criminal proceedings
After a defendant has been convicted of an offence, the prosecutor may make an application
for an order. Alternatively, the court may make an order of its own volition.
Orders on conviction can be made by the magistrates’ court, the youth court or the Crown
court. The form of these orders is set out in the Magistrates’ Court Rules and the Crown
Court Rules. An order may be made only if the court sentences or conditionally discharges
the offender for a relevant offence.
The Crown Prosecution Service usually requests the court to make an order on conviction, as
there is no formal application process for this order. The court has to consider that:
• the offender has acted in an anti-social manner, that is in a manner that caused or was likely
to cause harassment, alarm, or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as
the offender; and
• an order is necessary to protect any persons in any place in England and Wales from further
anti-social acts by him.
• Evidence
• Evidence should explain to the court the context of the anti-social behaviour and its effect
on other people. It can include:
• direct witness statements.
The head of a noisy household gets an ASBO for ignoring repeated official warnings and
threatening complaining neighbours and council officers
Issue
In March 2004, neighbours of a house in Lowestoft were subjected to frequent and persistent
loud music, resulting in 17 complaints over the course of a month. The perpetrator, who was
a housing association tenant, had intimidated, threatened, and verbally abused her
neighbours, council officers and visitors.
Approach
A noise abatement notice was served on the perpetrator by environmental health officers
under section 80 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Audio equipment was
confiscated following breach of the noise abatement notice. During the confiscation, the
perpetrator verbally abused the council officers.
After seven warning letters, two abatement notices and the confiscation of more than £1,000
of musical equipment, the council was still receiving complaints.
Failure to comply with an abatement notice without reasonable excuse is an offence, and the
noisy neighbour was taken to court. The council consulted Suffolk Police and the
housing association and proposed terms for an order on conviction that achieved much more
than the original abatement notice was capable of.
The magistrates granted the council’s application for an order on conviction with the
following prohibitions:
• not to play loud music that could be heard outside her dwelling; and
• not to verbally (or otherwise) abuse: employees or agents of the council; neighbours; or
visitors to the neighbourhood.
Outcome
The order on conviction had several advantages over the noise abatement notice as an
enforcement tool. It was easier to enforce as the evidence of experts such as environmental
health officers to prove statutory noise nuisance would not be required. The order on
conviction reduced the test of compliance to a simple (nonexpert) factual observation of

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