A MAN who was homeless after prison release, told police he was going to smash a Chinese takeaway window so he would have a warm cell to sleep in, a court heard.

Michael Strong, who had been jailed by Harrogate magistrates in August for offences which included deceptions committed against his parents, was back in the same court yesterday to admit using disorderly behaviour.

Steven Ovenden, prosecuting, said Strong, 41, had been arrested at 10pm on Wednesday after throwing a terracotta pot at the window of a takeaway.

The pot had smashed but the glass did not break.

Strong told officers: ''If you don't lock me up I am going to find a brick to put the window through.''

And he had added: ''If I assault you will you lock me up?''

Clive Farndon, mitigating, said Strong, who was homeless, had been released from prison on December 16.

After initial attempts to find him a home in Sheffield had failed, he returned to his home town of Harrogate.

Mr Farndon said: ''That has been unsuccessful and in the ten days he has been back he has been living and sleeping rough.

"He got to the point where he simply wanted some- where warm and dry for the night.

"Before the offence, he telephoned the police and told them exactly what he was going to do, and where.''

Court chairman Charles Bailey conditionally discharged Strong for a year and told him that there would be no order for costs because of his present situation.