Last week Holdthefrontpage reported on Oxford Courier reporter Robert Wilkinson being volunteered for a spell in a police cell for charity. He did it – but it wasn’t very much fun. Here’s his account of what happened…

If being arrested for real is half as scary as being arrested for charity then I definitely want to stay on the right side of the law.

The experience of being handcuffed and driven around in a police van for a couple of hours is guaranteed to jangle your nerves.

But along with seven other jailbreakers I was luckily able to help raise bail of more than £3,000 between us to secure our release.

My nightmare began when I was picked up at our Abingdon office yesterday morning and charged with being late for work and making pathetic excuses for it.

PC John Brown then put me in handcuffs and marched me into an awaiting police van where he mercifully unlocked the handcuffs.

Then we headed to Headington where I was joined in the van by Chris Howell-Jones of Allen & Harris estate agents.

My main fear beforehand was being locked up with an estate agent, but Chris was sufficiently good humoured that I needn’t have worried.

Soon two more likely suspects were bundled into the van, namely Liam Nugent of Second Site Recruitment and Brent Jackson, manager of the Oxford branch of the Skipton Building Society.

Soon all four of us were plotting an imaginary escape, bonded together by the prospect of what awaited us all at St Aldate’s Police Station.

At the station we were transported in a small lift to the cells, where everyone had to fill out a custody record.

The charge levelled against me was being late for work and coming up with lame excuses like ‘my alarm clock melted’.

Inside the police cell I contemplated my fate alongside three other jailbreakers, including solicitor Simon Bassett of Marshall and Galpin who later admitted he’d like to be arrested more often.

Just when we were all at our lowest point, an officer took us to the more pleasant surroundings of the police station bar where we worked the phones to raise more money.

The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Pat Stannard, was on hand to remind us of the importance of work done by the charity Deafblind UK.

He said: “Those who are deaf and blind wish it wasn’t the only way they are talked about. It’s very important to raise money for these people.”

Deafblind UK supports individuals who have lost, or are losing, both their sight and their hearing – an estimated 24,000 people across the UK.

This crushing disability leaves sufferers feeling vulnerable and they are often isolated in their communities.

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