A DEFENDANT who tried to trick a judge into accepting a 'clearly forged' sick note acted out of 'utter stupidity', a court has been told.

Adrian Johnson, 39, of Kingskerswell, backdated a doctor's note to avoid doing unpaid work in the community. But the forgery was so inexpertly crafted that an 'eagle-eyed' judge spotted it.

Johnson was charged with perverting the course of justice, and pleaded guilty when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Graham Cottle was told that Johnson was given a 52-week suspended prison sentence in August 2008, with 100 hours of unpaid work.

He had been convicted of theft and burglary offences comitted to pay for his heroin addiction.

Prosecutor Howard Phillips said Johnson failed to show up for an unpaid work appointment and on December 7 last year found himself in front of Judge Philip Wassall at Exeter Crown Court.

'For reasons best known to himself' Johnson had handed Judge Wassall a sick note explaining why he had breached the community order and was unfit to complete it.

"Judge Wassall immediately noticed it had been altered and backdated," said Mr Phillips, and had added a three-month curfew order to his punishment.

William Parkhill, mitigating, said it was difficult to understand Johnson's 'pointless and meaningless' actions because he had partially completed the unpaid work and had only made things worse for himself.

He said Johnson had already spent nine days in prison for absconding from the court on a previous occasion, and 'hated' being in custody.

He said the forgery was the result of 'utter stupidity' and 'not thinking things through'.

He said Johnson had finished a Think First programme designed to help convicted criminals improve their attitudes.

Sentencing, Judge Cottle said it was open to question how much Johnson had learnt from the programme.

He said: "It was such a ridiculous thing to do, with no prospect of being successful. The eagle-eyed Judge Wassall spotted it straight away — although I'm not sure you needed to be so eagle-eyed."

For activating the suspended sentence Johnson, of Coles Lane, was given a fresh curfew order requiring him to stay indoors between 9pm and 7am each evening for the next seven days.

For the community order breach and for perverting the course of justice he was given one day in custody to run concurrently.