A DEFENDANT was told to shut up or be locked up when he asked a district judge to say ‘please’.

Glenn Sweetman, 31, had a slight smile on his face when district judge Adrian Lower told him to sit down after he had confirmed his identity and pleaded guilty.

The judge asked what he found funny.

“Was there a please at the end of that?” said Sweetman.

“It is not for me to say please to you,” the judge replied.

“I am inviting you to sit down out of courtesy. If you are rude to me again, you will go to the cells for contempt of court.”

Sweetman, of no fixed address, sat down without a smile.

He had just admitted stealing a sandwich and other food together worth £7.73 from the Spar store in Lowther Street, York, on December 29, his first conviction, though he had a caution for a similar offence.

He was fined £100 and ordered to pay £7.73 compensation to the shop and £85 prosecution costs.

Prosecuting at York Magistrates Court, Sam Law said staff spotted his actions inside the store and alerted police, who found him eating the sandwich outside.

For Sweetman, Kristian Cavanagh said he was jobless, homeless and suffered from alcohol dependency.

For the first time in his life he had the chance of detoxification and rehabilitation through a York agency.