IT was, agrees 27-year-old Matthew Trotman, an amazingly stupid thing to do. But arming himself with a plastic pistol and brandishing it at passing drivers, the police helicopter and a scared woman resident in Mill Lane was his last desperate plea for somebody to take notice and help him.

Desperate to beat the drink and drug addictions which had first begun to dominate his life at 16, Matthew had been sleeping rough for a week when he committed the offence last July.

He knew that if he was in a prison cell he would have a roof over his head, warmth and medical care.

In fact, claims Matthew, jail has done more for him than that. The help he received while on remand at Horfield prison in Bristol, has weaned him off drugs and alcohol.

His aunt Charmaine, who is one of his few remaining friends, believes his class A habit, and the paranoia and mental torment it created, had come close to killing him.

Two weeks ago Matthew was sentenced to 40 hours' community service and one year's probation for being in possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

He left Swindon Crown Court with the words of Judge John McNaught ringing in his ears: Sort your life out, said His Honour. Get somewhere to live. Start working regularly and get things together.

"There's nothing I want more than to be able to do that,'' he said.

"I've been clean now for five months, and I intend to stay that way. But I'm still homeless, and with my record, who's going to employ me?''

He and 48-year-old Charmaine, who is his mother's sister, believe countless people in Swindon, most of them just kids, are caught in the same vicious circle. Especially if they have been in care. Matthew, who said his family had broken up, was fostered until he was 16.

"When you come out of social services care you are on your own," he claimed.

He left Commonweal School with five GCSEs and having passed two BTec courses. But he had no self-confidence and says he was lonely living in a bed sitter.

"I started drinking because it helped. A couple of pints of cider made me feel as if I could cope,'' he said.

"By the time I was 18 I was physically and mentally dependent on alcohol.''

If he couldn't get it, he suffered from sweats and shakes.

"In other words I was an alcoholic."

Then one of his friends introduced Matthew to drugs, and soon he was also on heroin.

"You think you're the one who won't get hooked on it and that you can handle it ,'' said Matthew. "But you can't.''

Before long he was so dependent that although he had worked at several jobs he was stealing, fighting and getting into often violent trouble as he tried to feed his habit.

Matthew admits he became a seriously bad lad. Eventually, after a vicious fight outside a Swindon nightclub he was sentenced to two and a half years in a young offenders institution.

"I actually served 15 months,'' he said. "And I came out with nothing.''

You have to be desperate to sleep rough, says the pale, slightly-built man who has a four-year-old son he hasn't seen for more than two years.

Matthew's mother lives in Bracknell, his dad is in Calne. But he wouldn't ask members of his family even his aunt Charmaine, to whom he had always been close for help.

Last July, he was sleeping under hedges in Mill Lane. And one day he borrowed a plastic toy gun from a friend and, in an attempt to get himself put away, he brandished it at anyone who came within his vision.

The results were spectacular. Passing motorists called the police, and a frightened resident thought he was going to shoot her and her dog.

Armed police officers and even the police helicopter turned out.

Matthew was arrested, charged and then taken to Princess Margaret Hospital, where he spent three days.

From there he was sent to Horfield Prison on remand, and confined to the hospital wing.

"But where does he go from here?'' asked Charmaine. "Where is the help which people like Matthew need if they are to stay out of trouble and away from drugs?''

He has spent this week at her one-bedroom flat in central Swindon. He hopes the probation service can pull strings to help him get some form of council accommodation.

"I'm willing to do any kind of work I can get,'' said Matthew, who claims he has some training as a graphic designer and has worked for WH Smith and Royal Mail.

"With a record like mine, neither of them would employ me now.''

He is determined he won't go back on drugs or drink. He wants to make up for his past,

But without a home and a job, what hope does he have?