A CROOK who once thanked a judge when he was jailed for robbery was less polite on his latest appearance before a court.

Alex Begley, 27, was locked up for 16 months after a police car chase, and shouted: "What? You're having a f***ing laugh here aren't ya, chor?"

His outburst, over a live video-link to prison, was quickly cut short by a clerk at Teesside Crown Court who switched off the screen.

In July 2016, when he was given two-and-a-half years for robbing a petrol station, Begley told a different judge: "“Thank you, I appreciate it. I'm done now, I’ve changed. I promise you.”

In November 2014, he had been jailed for three years for a knifepoint raid at Go Outdoors on Portrack Lane, Stockton, but police had not yet linked him to the filling station crime.

Forensic experts studied CCTV images of two ghostly masked figures in white boilersuits who robbed the all-night Tudor Lodge garage on Marton Road, Middlesbrough.

Begley and another man smashed their way through the locked glass door and fled with £70 on a cash tray after causing £3,500 damage.

Towering 6ft 5ins Begley was identified by his stoop, and was given two-and-a-half years when his earlier sentence came to an end.

Judge Howard Crowson told him: “As a sentencing exercise all this should have been done two years ago.

“The robbery offence was a very serious offence indeed.

“An enormous amount of work was done to identify you. There were two robberies to think about. I am passing a sentence which is obviously less than it was worth.”

Begley's gratitude was less in evidence when he appeared on the video-link in front of Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, for aggravated vehicle taking, driving without a licence or insurance, and breaching a suspended sentence imposed last year for assaulting two women.

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh said a cloned key had been used to steal a Ford Fiesta on February 12, and when police tried to stop it the following day, Begley sped off at up to double the speed limit on 30mph roads.

The chase ended when he crashed into bins and a wall in Saltersgill Avenue, Middlesbrough.

His lawyer, John Nixon, told the court: "One can say it was prolonged, but it wasn't the longest journey leading to charges of this kind."

Judge Bourne-Arton told Begley, of Liverton Avenue, Middlesbrough: "I have pointed out many times that those who start getting involved in pursuits with the police will serve sentences of imprisonment."