A 'disabled' defendant has stunned courtroom staff after leaping from his wheelchair and making a break for freedom.
In something resembling a Little Britain Lou and Andy sketch, the man, who claimed to have ‘two broken ankles’, jumped up and tried to escape the courtroom.
He reportedly made it around 400ft from the court's front door before being tackled and halted by six security guards.
The unnamed man was wheeled into Crawley Magistrates' Court in West Sussex charged with assaulting a police officer.
But it was when he was being pushed back to the cells in the neighbouring police station that he made a "mad dash" through the court looking for an exit.
Guards chased after the prisoner but were stopped from leaving the courtroom because they didn’t have keys to the door.
In Little Britain, Andy Pipkin, played by Matt Lucas, pretends to be disabled but gets out of his chair when his carer Lou Todd, played by David Walliams, has his back turned.
An investigation has been launched into how the defendant led the court to believe he was disabled.
After he had revealed his 'disability', the hearing was moved to a ground floor court.
A court officer told the Daily Express that there was “a fair bit of panic” at the time “but now it's over most of us are laughing about it”.
Another said: "The security guards chased him but couldn't get out, so someone had to let them out with a key."
"The guy then jumped down the stairs and ran out the front door, closely followed by the security guards. It was like a comedy scene."
A spokesman for the court said an investigation had been launched into the incident on May 1, adding: "We are conducting a thorough investigation into the circumstances of this incident.
"We cannot comment further on security arrangement at the court."