THE man at the centre of a row over prisoner transportation smiled as he was handed a suspended sentence.

Oliver Thomas was last month moved a few yards from Banbury Police Station to the next-door Magistrates’ Court in a van that had been dispatched from Hampshire.

Judge Tom Corrie criticised the exercise, which was carried out by GEOAmey, which started a multi-million-pound contact in August.

Yesterday the same judge sentenced Thomas at Oxford Crown Court for attempted robbery.

The 27-year-old, from Middleton Road, Banbury, threatened to stab student Emma-Jane Pring if she didn’t hand over money in the town on November 23.

Thomas, who has 19 previous convictions for 30 offences, admitted attempted robbery.

Judge Corrie said: “You don’t seem to feel any shame... you have been smiling throughout the proceedings.”