Sorry mate, you’re jailed

♦ A defendant was thrown into the cells for being disrespectful after calling a judge “mate”.

Sebastian Stroud, 35, upset District Judge Simon Cooper who asked him how he planned to pay outstanding fines going back five years. He muttered: “I’m not working, mate.” The judge retorted: “I am not your mate. I am not going to be spoken to like that.”

Stroud, who admitted a racially aggravated charge of using threatening or abusive words or behaviour towards police, was escorted to the cells at Swindon magistrates’ court and held for several hours for showing disrespect.