And finally… come on mate
A defendant who made the mistake of addressing a judge as “mate” was escorted back to the cells for his disrespect.
Sebastian Stroud, 35, gave a casual response when Judge Simon Cooper asked how he was going to pay a backlog of fines.
He said “I’m not working, mate”, to which the judge replied: “I am not your mate. I am not going to be spoken to like that.”
Stroud, appearing in Swindon Magistrates Court, had just been fined £160 with £35 costs and £30 towards victim services after admitting that he racially abused a police officer by calling him a “white bastard”.
Judge Cooper warned the man that he would be committed to Crown Court unless he started making payments towards his debts.
Stroud spent several hours in the cells for his disrespect before he was eventually released, the Swindon Advertiser reports.