A MAN has been jailed after telling magistrates he would not comply with any community-based penalty.

Matthew Day, of Batley Street, Moldgreen, was given a community order after he assaulted his ex and damaged her property.

But he refused to stay in the house during his curfew hours and cut off a tag monitoring his movements.

Kirklees magistrates sentenced him to four months in prison after the defiant 23-year-old stated that he would "rather go to prison" than complete the court order.

His solicitor told magistrates that Day had lost motivation after his relationship ended and he had no prospect of work.

In September he was sentenced to a 12 month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work.

Day was also made subject to an electronically-monitored curfew between the hours of 8.30pm and 5.30am.

He had admitted assaulting his former partner of seven years Stephanie Smith and damaging a stereo and door at her Dalton home.

Magistrates were told that the couple had an argument during which Miss Smith armed herself with a vodka bottle.

During this, Day grappled with her and in frustration punched a CD player.

He then followed Miss Smith out into the hallway where he found her throwing his clothes out into the street.

He then damaged a door and slapped her in the face.

Magistrates were told that Day attended an induction appointment with the probation service but completed no further unpaid work hours.

He was then absent from his home frequently between October 1 and 9, the worst being on October 8 when he was absent from 8.30am until the following day.

Day then cut off his tag and informed security firm G4S that he had withdrawn his consent to have curfew monitoring equipment at his address.

He told a probation officer: "I can’t deal with it, I would rather go to prison."

Jonathan Slawinski, mitigating, told magistrates that since the breakdown of his relationship Day had sought employment.

He had hoped this would lead to long term employment, but after promises of work was rejected by an agency.

Mr Slawinski said: "That tipped him over the edge, he has not worked for some time.

"He gave up and decided to cut the tag off and not complete any unpaid work."

The solicitor added that his client was suffering from depression and previous court orders had not helped him deal with his issues.

He said to magistrates: "It goes against the grain for me to ask you to send Mr Day to custody but sadly these are my instructions.

"His indication is that he does not wish to comply with any community-based penalty.

"I ask you to keep any sentence of custody you do impose as short as possible."

Magistrates told Day that they were disappointed that he felt he could not comply with any orders as this may have helped him.

They said that in this view they had no alternative but to send him to prison.