A man who objected to police searching him when he was smoking a joint has been jailed.

Emily Hirst, prosecuting, said a PCSO suspected Steven Thompson was breaking the law when he saw him in Heworth and attempted to stop him smoking and allow himself to be searched.

But Thompson, 56, refused and walked off saying “You can’t stop me”.

The PCSO followed him to a play park when he again tried to search Thompson. This time, the 56-year-old emptied his pockets, throwing the items inside onto the ground and tried to cycle off, but was pushed off by the PCSO.

Thompson, of Burlington Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to obstructing police and breaching a suspended prison sentence imposed in February for assault and failure to attend court.

He was ordered to serve nine weeks of the suspended sentence with one week concurrent for the new offence.

His solicitor Craig Robertson said Thompson had accepted smoking the joint.

He urged York magistrates not to send Thompson down saying the assault and failure to attend court had been committed in 2013.

Thompson had then gone to Spain with no intention to return to the UK, but this year had done so for family reasons. The obstructing police offence was his first since 2013.

But magistrates said there were no exceptional reasons why they should not make him serve the suspended sentence.