A Manchester eruv may still be under discussion but one local burglar has got his own, all to himself. One catch — he is not allowed to use it.

Cat-burglar Keith Doyle, 25, had such a taste for raiding Jewish houses that he has been banned from entering Manchester’s most Jewish area. The rare criminal antisocial behaviour order, or crasbo, issued by Manchester Crown Court, proclaims an exclusion area which runs along the four main roads surrounding the neighbourhood of Broughton Park. Doyle will be arrested if he is seen inside it.

But Doyle will not be carrying anything inside the zone for a while. After pleading guilty to burgling homes in Roston Road, Kersal Gardens and Okeover Road, almost entirely home to religious Jewish families, he was jailed for 18 months. He also admitted to attempted burglaries from three other nearby addresses in a five-week crime spree from July to September last year.

Salford Police Superintendent Lior Giladi says the crasbo, which will run until 2012, is the first he has seen to protect a Jewish community.

“Crasbos are hard to get, but because he was exclusively burgling Jewish houses for some time, it was issued. It’s good news for the community, and for the police.”

But victim Esther Grossnas is not convinced, despite thinking the zone is a good idea.

“How on earth is anyone going to know that he isn’t coming in the area? Has he got a tracker on him? They can’t stop them — no sooner than they get out of prison, the burglaries go up.”

Despite silver candlesticks and kiddush cups not being his preferred loot, Doyle did get away with a digital camera, a TomTom satnav and the Grossnass family’s car, although he may have picked the wrong community if he was after a TV.

Doyle, who lives only a short hop from Broughton Park’s affluent Jewish houses, is also prohibited from actions that might cause harassment, alarm or distress to people anywhere in the city, and from entering any garden or yard without consent.