POLICE arrested a man on the steps of a York courthouse after he allegedly gestured at them.

The officers picked up Robert Dudley Atkins, 30, as he stood outside York Magistrates Court waiting for justices to decide his sentence on an unrelated matter.

Court proceedings were delayed for an hour when police took him to Fulford Road Police Station under arrest on suspicion of a public order offence.

They allege they saw him make a gesture to them as they were driving past.

The court could not continue sitting until he returned.

And the three magistrates deciding his fate could not be told the reason for the delay in case it influenced them.

When Atkins returned to court, magistrates ordered him to do 12 months' community rehabilitation and pay £50 court costs for shoplifting and carrying a three-inch knife.

Then defence solicitor Colin Byrne told them about the alleged gesture and police action and said he and the Crown Prosecution Service had both urged officers to get Atkins back to court.

He added that the police had not told court staff or CPS about the arrest.

"The defendant clearly could have been dealt with in another way and there was no need whatsoever for the court to be delayed in this way," he said.

He made allegations about the legality of the police's conduct and said that an investigation was under way into it.

Superintendent Steve Barlow of York police said he could not comment because the public order charge was sub judice.

Atkins, of Severn Green, Nether Poppleton, pleaded guilty to stealing toiletries worth £56.16 from Tesco's at Clifton Moor on July 29 and carrying a three-inch bladed knife on Windsor Garth on January 1.

Mr Byrne said Atkins habitually carried a knife.

He suffers from depression and was expecting to get hospital counselling for that, the death of his father just before Christmas and drug and alcohol abuse.

* Atkins is expected to deny the public order charge, which is due in court next week and for which the maximum punishment is a fine.

* Defendants often go to the court steps to smoke while magistrates decide on their sentence because no smoking is allowed inside the court building.

Updated: 10:23 Friday, February 22, 2002