A Christmas reveller has been fined after hitting a fellow drinker who goaded him in a Black Friday bust-up.
The man told plasterer Martin Niland the coat he was wearing made him “look like a farmer” and when the 30-year-old was arrested for assault and taken to Arbroath police station officers found £20 worth of cocaine which he had bought on the night out.
Appearing before Sheriff Pino Di Emidio, Niland, of Elmbank Crescent in Arbroath pleaded guilty to assaulting the man at the Pageant, Kirk Square, Arbroath, on December 20 and possessing the class A drug.
The court heard the 42-year-old victim was on a works night out and he admitting he had been “winding up” the accused before the assault. Police were alerted after a CCTV operator spotted the disturbance.
While being searched at Arbroath police office charge bar, 0.41grammes of cocaine, valued at £20, was found on Niland.
Defence solicitor Billy Rennie said the two men did not know each other and the accused had also been out for a pre-Christmas drink with friends.
“It had been a good night and they were all in high spirits,” he said.
“For no apparent reason the complainer started to mock him for what he was wearing and witnesses spoke of the complainer slapping Mr Niland on the head,” said the agent.
The victim later told police: “I would him up about his jacket and looking like a farmer. I shouldn’t have wound him up, but he shouldn’t have assaulted me, I don’t want to make a complaint.”
Mr Rennie said his client had been out of trouble for some seven years, adding that the cocaine offence was out of character.
“He was offered it and can only put it down to being in high spirits. That is not normally part of his lifestyle, and going to the pub is not normally part of his lifestyle.”
Fining Niland £370, Sheriff Di Emidio said: “Although this other gentleman should not have spoken to you in the way that he did, you should not have reacted in the way that you did.”