A suspected Mafia clan member weighing 210 kilogrammes (460 pounds) was placed under house arrest after putting too heavy a burden on prison staff, Italian press reports said Wednesday.

A court in the Sicilian capital Palermo agreed to allow Salvatore Ferranti, 36, who has been in preventive custody since August 2007, to go home because none of the five prisons that have held him have been able to guarantee respect for his dignity, the reports said.

Ferranti has been moved four times in the past eight months, the daily La Repubblica reported on its website.

Suspects may be held for up to a year awaiting trial in the Italian justice system, and Mafia suspects are automatically placed in preventive custody.

Ferranti was attended around the clock by guards who had to assist him in all his bodily functions.