A rowdy customer bit two regulars as they helped the landlord throw him out of a Selby pub, York Crown Court heard.

Ashley Fulcher, 23, was on parole from a jail sentence of three years and four months for violence in Norfolk when he annoyed other customers at the New Inn, Gowthorpe, on March 9, said Mark Styles, prosecuting.

First he was talking aggressively and noisily to a man. After the other man left and landlord Steve Dyson told him to calm down, he took a coat from two other customers sitting together and handed it to a woman. The coat was handed back and the customers left.

Then he pushed the woman backwards "which was the catalyst for the disturbance that broke out," said Mr Styles.

Fulcher objected to being told to leave the pub and started throwing punches.

He bit pub regulars Robert Cleghorn and Kevin Stockdale and threatened the landlord before being expelled and stopped from re-entering. Police arrested him 20 minutes later in Finkle Street nearby.

Fulcher, of Hawthorne Road, Selby, pleaded guilty to two charges of actual bodily harm.

Judge Jim Spencer QC deferred sentence for six months, warning him he would go back to prison unless he showed he was a reformed person and was conquering his alcohol problem by March 20.

"It is a chance I am giving you," he said.

For Fulcher, Peter Byrne said he was injured during the melee on March 9 and permanently scarred.

"He does feel a little aggrieved about the whole incident," said Mr Byrne.

He was motivated to tackle his alcohol problem.

Since his release partway through the 40-month sentence in May 2013, Fulcher's efforts at reforming himself had won positive comments from probation officers, said the defence barrister.

He had moved to North Yorkshire to make a fresh start and had set up as a self-employed painter and decorator.