A FEW hours in the cells for crimes including telling bad jokes raised thousands of pounds for East the Lancashire Hospice.

The Dean of Blackburn Cathedral Christopher Armstrong, Ronnie O'Keeffe from The Mall shopping centre and Nigel Womack from Nigel's Cutting Shop in Town Hall Street were among criminals' sent down during the fundraiser at Blackburn magistrates court.

Each participant faced a hearing, then was shown to a 'cell' with an objective to raise at least £500 each for bail' or face a night in the slammer.

Paul Aspinall, 60, a director of Tempest Electrical, convicted of bringing comedy into disrepute' with his jokes about marriage. Group finance director for Rossendale developers the Hurstwood Group, Andy Park, 39, was charged with having more chest hair than Tom Jones'.

The Dean was accused of having a large carbon footprint due to the all the energy used by the Cathedral. He admitted he was guilty.

Standing in for former Blackburn Rovers foot-baller Kevin Galla-cher, who was covering the Rovers game in Finland for TV, was his friend and neighbour John Evans, 54, proprietor of Danesmoor care home in Rossendale who was charged with impersonating Kevin , John, the proprietor of Danesmoor care home in Rossendale, said: "I've managed to raise £45 since I had the call on Monday but I'm hoping Kevin has managed to raise £500 or I'm going to be doing a long stretch."

Ming Fu, 35, owner of Mr Fu's Chinese Restaurant said: "I'm quite confident my friends will help me out.

"I'm hoping to raise about £700. Before this I didn't really know what the East Lancashire Hospice was and from this, while I have been raising the funds, I have found a lot of other people who didn't know about it either.

"I thought it was a good cause that needed some more exposure and you never know when you or someone you know might need it."

Harry Grayson, head of fundraising at the hospice, said: "At this stage we haven't asked people how much they have raised but I should imagine it will be in excess of £10,000."