A CRIMINAL forged a medical certificate in an attempt to escape punishment after failing to obey a court order.

But when Gary Naylor handed the fake doctor's note over, his probation officer smelled a rat and now he has been jailed for six months.

Lindsay Thomas, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court that on July 30 last year 21-year-old Naylor was sentenced to a 12-month community order for assault by Bolton magistrates.

But Naylor failed to turn up for several unpaid work sessions and, realising he could be jailed for the breach, decided to forge a sick note.

The court heard that Naylor used an old medical certificate belonging to his mother, covering her details and adding his own, claiming he was unfit to work due to back problems.

But when he presented the fake certificate to probation officer Anthony Sadler he became suspicious.

He contacted a receptionist at the medical centre where the certificate had been issued who stated Naylor was not a registered patient there.

And the doctor named on the certificate confirmed it was not her writing and that her signature had been photocopied.

Naylor, of St Helen's Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to making and using a false document.

Nicholas Ross, defending, said Naylor had panicked when he realised he could be in trouble for not obeying the court order.

"He understands that what he did was foolish in the extreme," said Mr Ross.

"It was crass stupidity and unsophisticated."

The court heard Naylor has a lengthy criminal record dating back to when he was just 11 years old and a history of disobeying the courts.

Sentencing him to six months in jail, Judge Elliot Knopf told Naylor: "There are some people who believe sentences other than immediate custodial sentences are a mere slap on the wrist.

I have always treated such sentences with the greatest seriousness.

"It seems to me that you took some forethought to produce a document which you thought would pull the wool over your probation officer's eyes.

"What you were trying to do was to run rings round the system and undermine public justice.

"You have to take the lesson, Mr Naylor, that community orders are serious, they have to be complied with and not treated in the cavalier way you have done in the past."