GAZETTE & HERALD: STEFAN Seeger has been banned from the town centre's pubs for 12 months after he allegedly broke two windows and assaulted a pub owner.

Seeger, 29, from The Causeway, Chippenham, is the first person to be banned under the new Pub Watch scheme and will be prevented from entering all pubs participating in the initiative until March next year.

Pub owners and landlords from the watchdog organisation met on Tuesday to discuss Seeger's actions a week earlier and felt they had no choice but to bar him from their premises.

Wiltshire Police licensing officer, PC Alan Millward, said that Seeger had been notified of his ban by letter and told that he would be denied entry into all the scheme's participating pubs and clubs, including The Bear, The Four Seasons and The Fizz Bar.

"Pub Watch was set up to make venues safer and more pleasant places for everyone," said PC Millward.

"And that means banning entry to people who behave in a threatening or violent manner.

"The pubs will be liaising to make sure he does not enter their premises at all, until his ban is over."

The owners of the pub declined to press criminal proceedings against Seeger and instead chose for him to be dealt with through the Pub Watch scheme.

PC Millward said: "Up until now, publicans banning an individual from their premises for serious offences such as fighting or violence against customers or staff, would just see them go down the road to drink and maybe cause trouble somewhere else.

"But Pub Watch is an effort by all of Chippenham's town centre pubs to instill the message into offenders that they cannot get away with this behaviour."

Pub Watch was resurrected in Chippenham at the end of last year and the majority of pubs and clubs in the town have already signed-up.