A 20-YEAR-OLD will complete a longer sentence after a district judge accused him of giving “a rubbish excuse”.

Thomas Pritchard, of Wordsworth Avenue, Farnworth, appeared at Bolton Magistrates Court yesterday charged with failing to comply with an eightweek cufew by tampering with his tag.

Peter Leather, defending, said Pritchard claimed the tag was damaged unintentionally when he was starting up an off-road “pit bike” he was using on January 9. He said he had been complying with his curfew.

The court heard Pritchard had no marks on his leg when staff attended his home and thought the tag had been tampered with.

Pritchard was subject to a curfew after taking a vehicle without consent on last July.

District Judge Jonathan Finestein, sentencing, said: “Your explanation is very difficult to accept. You have an appalling record for breaching orders. I don’t accept this explanation I think you were just messing around and took the tag off.

“To break these tags takes some amount of force and I don’t accept it. If you don’t comply with the curfew I will send you to prison. You appear before me with a rubbish excuse, think yourself fortunate.”

Pritchard will spend an additional three weeks on a curfew.