It has cost thousands of pounds in legal bills and seen its main protagonist jailed twice.

In 1985, Graham Sanger and his family moved to Black Dog Walk, a quiet and friendly residential street in Crawley.

A month later, a family called Clarke moved in next door. It was the beginning of what neighbours say has been a 17-year nightmare.

Yesterday saw the latest chapter in the story, with father-of-five Gordon Clarke convicted of intimidating next-door neighbour Mr Sanger during a row.

Now Clarke, 43, is facing jail for the third time in five years after a jury found him guilty of breaking the anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) imposed by a court in an attempt to stop him making his elderly neighbours' lives a misery.

In November 2001 Sussex Police took Clarke and his 15-year-old son Aaron to court over a string of complaints about the pair's behaviour towards residents of Black Dog Walk.

The allegations gave some indication of the daily torment faced by the Clarke's neighbours - abusive language, obscene gestures, excessive noise and intimidation.

Clarke and his son admitted anti-social acts and Deputy District Judge Katherine Marshall imposed ASBOs on the pair.

This week, Clarke Snr was back in court, accused of breaching his ASBO 11 times during the first four months of last year.

Yesterday a Hove Crown Court jury cleared him of ten charges of making intrusive noise by banging his garage door and revving his car engine.

Yet they found him guilty of breaking his ASBO by shouting at and intimidating 66-year-old Mr Sanger.

Last April, Mr Sanger called the police when Clarke started yelling and swearing at him over their garden fence.

On Monday, another neighbour, Barbara Denyer, told the court she was regularly woken by the sound of Clarke banging his garage door as he set off for work at 5.30am. She insisted he did it deliberately to annoy her.

The jury accepted his explanation that the garage door had been sticking and he had not been intentionally loud.

Members of the jury heard Clarke's previous convictions read to the court yesterday.

They dated back to July 1992, when he was convicted of using threatening, abusive and insulting words and behaviour and fined £50.

In March 1998, he was sent to prison for 70 days for harassment and a restraining order was made against him. The man he was convicted of harassing was his neighbour Douglas Denyer, the now-deceased husband of Barbara Denyer.

In June 2001 he was found to have breached the protection from harassment order and sent to prison for another 30 days.

Outside court, Mr Sanger criticised police for failing to provide adequate protection, claiming they failed to police the ASBO thoroughly.

He said: "For 17 years people have had to live next to this family and some have died with their last years of life made a misery.

"The police treat us as if we're just a load of old fogies having a moan but it is a genuine complaint."

Alison Denyer, who lives nearby with her mother Barbara, is registered disabled and suffers from a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis.

She and her mother were disappointed by the result of the latest court case but pleased by the vindication of their neighbour Mr Sanger.

Miss Denyer also does not think the law provides adequate protection for neighbours, saying: "If the ASBO process was a fast track it might be better but this has gone on 15 months. And then you don't get justice at the end of the day."

In December last year, Clarke's disabled wife Jay made her own court appearance, accused of failing to keep her Rottweiler dog under control.

The dog had attacked and maimed an 11-year-old boy who was playing in her garden with her own children.

The same dog had bitten a ten-year-old girl and her mother just months before.

Magistrates ordered the dog should be destroyed but were forced to withdraw the ruling minutes later because of a legal loophole.

Chief Inspector Kul Verma, district commander for Crawley, called yesterday's conviction a "victory for justice".

He said the police had been working with residents to resolve their difficulties and had box files of records which would counter Mr Sanger's belief they did not take the problems seriously.

He said: "The ASBO was brought about by police action and our determination to take Mr Clarke to court was again police action."