A YOUNG man has been sent to jail for two months for flicking a cigarette into a Royal Mail pillar-box.

Matthew Orford, 21, of Fox Lane, Thorpe Willoughby, pleaded guilty to placing a lighted cigarette in a letterbox in Gowthorpe, Selby.

He was also jailed for a month, the sentences to run concurrently, after admitting obstructing police in the execution of their duty.

Duncan Sharp, prosecuting, said two police officers on mobile duty in Gowthorpe at about 12.10am on November 23 last year saw Orford flick a lighted cigarette through the postbox opening.

He said Orford used offensive language when challenged about his action and tried to resist arrest. "He was abusive throughout and was wrestled to the floor, handcuffed and put into a police vehicle."

Magistrates heard that Orford had been:

* Sentenced to 12 months in a Young Offenders' Institution in April, 1996, for drugs offences

* Disqualified from driving for 12 months last May for drink-driving

* Jailed for three months last September for aiding and abetting driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance

* Jailed for four months, the sentences to run concurrently, by a judge at York Crown Court later in September for perverting the course of justice by "swapping identities" with a friend who was in the car.

John Kirkwood, for Orford, said: "On the night in question, he had been involved in a serious argument with his girlfriend and was not in a very happy state of mind."

Mr Kirkwood said Orford, who had been drinking, walked into Selby.

"He saw the pillar-box. He tells me he sort of stubbed out the cigarette, although he accepts it could well have been alight, and then tossed it towards the opening, being reckless as to whether it was still lit or not.

"It wasn't malicious. He simply didn't think before committing this act of absurd childishness."

Mr Kirkwood stressed that no mail was damaged.

He said his client, who no longer had any involvement with drugs, would lose his job as a welder if he was sent to prison. "In the context of this particular matter, that would be a very harsh penalty indeed."

But magistrate Jean Hall told Orford: "We do feel that these offences are so serious that the only way we can deal with you is by custody."

She added: "You have failed to respond to non-custodial sentences and even custodial sentences. You have continued to offend and this offence was committed almost immediately you came out of prison.

"We take a very serious view of offences which could lead to damage of Her Majesty's mail."

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