NEIGHBOURS are hoping for a peaceful 2013 after a war veteran who was thrown out of his home for making their lives a misery has returned.

Lee Harvey played loud music, held parties at the house day and night, invited drug users into his home in a quiet residential street and damaged his neighbour’s property with cigarette butts.

The problems became so unbearable for residents that the police took Harvey to court and magistrates imposed a closure order on Harvey’s home in Delph Hill Close, Doffcocker.

It is the first time the order, which was effective for three months, had been granted for a privately owned house in Bolton. Metal shutters were put on the property for the duration, and were removed on December 18 when Harvey was allowed to move back in.

Harvey was injured in a bomb blast and lost the back of his thigh in Afghanistan. The court heard he “died” on the operating table for five minutes following a mortar attack in April, 2012, but medics managed to save him.

He was medically discharged from the army, where he served in the parachute regiment and came back to Bolton, using some savings to buy a house.

He told the court that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, which caused him to drink heavily and use drugs occasionally. He said he lost some of his hearing when he was injured.

But within days of moving in April, 2011, he caused problems for neighbours.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “It has been really peaceful these past three months. It has been heaven — there have been no issues while he was away.

“We just want things to be civil. He can have parties, everyone is allowed to have parties, but just not the way it was. We will wait and see what happens.”