A FACTORY worker from the Selby area has been ordered to pay compensation to two police officers he attacked as they tried to arrest him.

Craig Daniel Thompson, 19, got into a struggle with the officers in High Street, at South Milford, on February 4, after he shouted abuse at them.

Emma Pearce, prosecuting, told Selby Magistrates Court officers approached Thompson and a friend after they heard one of the men shout abuse at them.

She said: "The officers asked them to quieten down and asked them who shouted the abusive language.

"Rather than moving on, Thompson said to the officers, 'There is nothing you can do.'"

He was then abusive to the officers and said: "Why don't you get a proper job?"

Miss Pearce told the court that as the police arrested Thompson he struggled violently, saying: "I am not going anywhere. I will take you both on."

A police radio was damaged in the scuffle and the police used CS gas spray to subdue Thompson. The officers suffered minor injuries.

Thompson, of New Lane, Sherburn-in-Elmet, pleaded guilty to three charges of resisting a constable, criminal damage and a public order offence.

Keith Haggerty, mitigating, told the court Thompson had no previous convictions and had spent £40 on about 16 alcoholic drinks on the night of the incident.

He said: "This was a sorry incident and it is a shame that Thompson finds himself in court for something that, at the time, he believed he was justified in doing.

"He believed he was lawfully entitled to resist because in his eyes it was an unlawful arrest."

Thompson was fined £75 for each charge, ordered to pay £75 in compensation to the officers and court costs of £50. He was also bound over by magistrates for six months for the sum of £300.

Presiding magistrate Peter Smith said: "We take a pretty dim view of your behaviour. Going round abusing police officers is very bad indeed. They have a difficult enough job to do anyway.

"Using violence when you are arrested legitimately makes it still worse. That sort of thing cannot be tolerated and will not be tolerated.

"It does not matter how long you spent drinking, £40 worth of alcohol buys an awful lot of drunkenness."

Updated: 10:31 Monday, February 13, 2006