A HEART patient must pay compensation to a hostel receptionist for injuring him late at night.

Reception worker Anthony Stannard had asked resident John Thomas Morgan, 32, to leave the budget hostel on Micklegate on December 4 following complaints about noise, said Steven Ovenden, prosecuting.

Thomas objected and pushed Mr Stannard, causing reddening to his skin.

Thomas, formerly of York and currently living in Sutton-on-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to assault and was conditionally discharged for six months and ordered to pay £50 compensation, plus £85 prosecution costs, plus a £15 victim surcharge.

His solicitor Chris McGrogan said Mr Stannard had “frogmarched” Thomas to his room and asked him to pack his belongings.

Thomas had not understood why he was being asked to leave. He had been anxious and worried because he had learned hours earlier he would need a second heart operation.

He had met up with some friends and had some drinks and had over-reacted. He had been “argumentative” not “aggressive”. It had been late at night and he was concerned about finding himself out on the streets with nowhere to go on a December night.

Thomas travelled regularly to York to attend doctors’ appointments and hopes to return to the city once he is fit enough to work again.