A text message consisting of four words and a couple of kisses from a police cell landed the texter in jail for six weeks.

Mohi Uddin, 26, wrote “Drop the charges, please, XX” to his girlfriend on his mobile phone while police thought he was looking for his employer’s number, said Nick Adlington, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

They had just arrested him for assaulting her and punching a hole in her bedroom door in anger.

Uddin, of Sixth Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, assault and criminal damage.

Judge Guy Kearl QC said the country’s most senior judges had made it clear that those who perverted the course of justice had to be locked up unless there were exceptional circumstances.

“There are no exceptional circumstances in your case,” he told Uddin and jailed him for six weeks.

Mr Adlington said Uddin's girlfriend asked to pick her up in the early hours of Boxing Day and take her home. Although they had been in a relationship for two and a half years, they lived apart.

He reluctantly provided the lift. Back at her home, they argued because she thought he had been smoking cannabis. He pushed her over onto her bed, punched the bedroom door and told her he would "smash her up".

Following his arrest, he asked police at Fulford Road Police Station if he could phone his employer to say that he wouldn't be in for work and when they agreed, took the chance to send the text message.

For him, Andrew Semple said it was an "act he made really in panic and immediately regretted."

He said Uddin had begrudged giving his girlfriend the lift and lost his temper.

The pair have since separated. Mr Semple said Uddin was normally a hard-working man.

The judge said the girlfriend was not injured, though she was shaken up by the assault.