A judge is to retire from the bench after 23 years on the local circuit.

District judge John Bailey has sat at county courts across the region, including Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton.

He qualified as a solicitor in 1971 and practised with law firm Tilly Bailey and Irvine, in Hartlepool.

Judge Bailey, 65, a former Durham County Cricket captain, was appointed as a registrar in 1983 and then became a district judge when the title changed in 1991.

Two years ago, he oversaw a public examination of former Darlington chairman George Reynolds' financial affairs at Teesside County Court.

The father-of-three, who was born in Stockton, but brought up in West Hartlepool, has received a letter of thanks from Lord Chancellor Lord Faulkner.

Fellow judges and colleagues will attend a presentation for him at Teesside County Court on Thursday