COMEDIAN Mark Rough may have thought he would have the last laugh when he duped customers out of thousands of pounds.

But the former comedy club boss found it was no joking matter when he was sentenced to three years' probation yesterday, after he falsely claimed to have booked top comics Lee Hurst and Bob Monkhouse.

Now he will have to repay the punters' £2,000.

Rough, 36, who pleaded guilty before Sunderland magistrates to two charges of obtaining cash by deception and to using a false instrument, was given probation on condition that repay the money within six months and undergo a "sound-thinking programme".

Michael Rose, prosecuting, said Rough had launched the Fnrr Fnrr comedy club at The Smugglers pub at Roker, in February.

He had an initial run of success, until he claimed to have booked Lee Hurst and Bob Monkhouse. The show was a sell-out, but landlord Paul Walsh became suspicious.

Rough showed him two contracts produced on his home computer, with the purported signatures of the comedians.

But he later admitted to police that he had taken the money and spent it because he had been in debt.

George Sainthouse, mitigating, said: "What he has shown is genuine remorse and a genuine feeling of shame for himself and for people he let down, and indeed for his profession."

Rough, of Docking Hill Road, Doncaster, said after the hearing: "I am happy I am out of jail. But I am not gloating about it.

"I am sorry to the people I have let down. All I am thinking about now is making people laugh and paying the money back."

Donna Gibson, who runs The Smugglers with Paul Walsh said last night: "The sentence was farcical. He should have got a custodial sentence at the least."

She added the Smugglers would relaunch the comedy club at 9pm tonight with a competition to find a new name