A MAN who fled the country in a four-year bid to escape prosecution for assaulting three people is today in a British prison.

Gelu Stroe, 29, has now been extradited from two different countries to bring him to justice for crimes outside his native Romania.

He is the second person to be brought to the UK to be sentenced for an incident in May 2017 in which three men were injured, York Crown Court heard.

Fellow Romanian Alexandru Nica, 31, was jailed in September last year for 12 months after admitting three charges of causing actual bodily harm.

Richard Holland, prosecuting, said the pair kicked and punched three men, knocking one unconscious and injuring all of them.

The trio claimed to police that Stroe and Nica had launched an unprovoked and sudden attack on them.

After viewing CCTV of the incident and the way the three had behaved before the assaults, Judge Simon Hickey disagreed.

"There is a great deal of provocation from these three victims," he said.

He told Stroe "Nonetheless it is accepted you went way beyond what could be accepted as lawful self defence."

Mr Holland said Stroe and Nica told police the three had insulted them racially as they were talking to two women.

Stroe pleaded guilty to three charges of actual bodily harm. He had denied a charge of failure to attend court four years ago but was convicted. He was jailed for 13 and a half months.

For him, Kevin Blount said that when he was in his late teens, he had been involved in a series of "serious thefts" in Spain and had left the country.

After leaving the UK in 2017, he had gone to Romania. From there he had been extradited to Spain and had been sentenced to two years in prison.

He had again returned to Romania on his release and trained to be a tattoo artist.

"He moved to Holland for a fresh start and was working as a tattoo artist when he was arrested and brought back to this country," said Mr Blount.

"He is a very different person to the person he was in 2017. He has grown up and wants to do things very differently."

Mr Holland said the three victims had been to Quids Inn nightclub on St Nicholas Street, Scarborough, on May 27, 2017, and started walking home at 4am.

In St Thomas Street, they came across Stroe and Nica talking with two women.

The judge said the three were verbally aggressive towards the Romanians, including finger pointing, and one had got into Stroe's personal space.

He said he based his assessment on body language and actions because the CCTV did not have audio.