CUSTOMERS of Britain's biggest cable TV company who rang a helpline were stunned to be told: "Just f*** off and leave us alone."

A North-East man who was kept hanging on for help hacked into the company's system and changed the recorded message so everyone who rang was met with a stream of abuse.

The polite message asking customers to hold on was changed to: "Hello, you're through to Ntl customer services.

"We don't give a f*** about you. We are never here. We will just f*** you about, basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just f*** off and leave us alone. Get a life."

Ashley Gibbins's practical joke appeared to have backfired when the cable company filed a complaint with police.

But he walked free from court yesterday when magistrates decided his message was not likely to grossly offend anyone.

Sue Jacobs, prosecuting, said Gibbins, 26, stumbled by accident on the facility to change the message after he was kept on the 0800 line for an hour as he tried to order broadband for his computer.

A month later, Cleveland Police raided his home as he slept after a night shift as a taxi driver in Redcar.

They charged him with an offence under the 2003 Communications Act of making a grossly offensive message.

Gibbins, of Southampton Street, Redcar, faced six months in jail or a £5,000 fine, but he denied the charge and Teesside magistrates found him not guilty.

He never got his broadband because the company axed him from its list of customers.

His solicitor, John Nixon, said earlier: "He admits he caused these words to be recorded so that people who phoned in could hear the words. The issue is were the words grossly offensive?"

Court chairman Alan Byfield said that the three magistrates had consulted Chambers dictionary and decided that the words were offensive but not grossly offensive.

Vicky Turner, 39, from Billingham, Teesside, was one of the Ntl customers who heard the message during the two hours before it was removed.

She said: "I was horrified and shocked.

"But I have to admit that the second time I heard it I had to laugh because I agreed with what the message said."

She said she rang the line to buy a Middlesbrough match, which was on pay-to-view. She said: "I was put on hold for one-and-a-half hours, by which time the match had started, so there was no point buying it.

"But when I did get through to a human I was cut off. I thought I would call to complain, but I got the message first."

Malcolm Padley, Ntl spokesman, said: "We are as outraged as any customer who tried to contact the line.

"We absolutely apologise for any offence caused and I hope everyone understands how seriously we treated this incident.