Chef who lived at airport jailed

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A homeless chef who lived at Gatwick Airport for more than three years has been jailed for 15 months.

Anthony Delaney, 43, ate, showered and slept at the West Sussex airport in scenes similar to the 2004 film The Terminal, Lewes Crown Court heard.

He was given an Asbo banning him from the airport in 2006 and was jailed after repeatedly breaching the order.

Delaney, who had convictions for a series of thefts at the airport, began living at the south terminal in 2004.

Judge Richard Hayward told him at his last court appearance in February that could not understand why, as a fully-qualified head chef, he had not found a job.

On Friday, the judge said he had at first felt sympathy for Delaney's situation.

But Judge Hayward said that this was before he had learnt that the Asbo was imposed after Delaney had been convicted of a series of thefts at the airport.

Job interviews

"It was a situation that attracted some publicity at the time and I wondered if it was appropriate that an Asbo be given for that sort of offence," the judge said.

But, he added, "further information painted a different picture".

The court heard Delaney was jailed for 95 days the third time he breached his Asbo, but was released immediately because he had spent time in custody on remand.

He had been in custody again since the fifth breach, on 3 June.

Defending, Ahmed Hossain said Delaney had been to two job interviews at a hotel, but had been arrested two days after the second.

He said his client was trapped in a "vicious circle" of unemployment and homelessness.

But the judge said he was not convinced Delaney had made significant efforts to better his situation.

In the Spielberg-directed movie The Terminal, Tom Hanks stars as a passenger who lives in New York's JFK Airport after being stranded there because of political upheaval in his homeland.