A DELIVERY driver assaulted a man and tried to flee the scene with him clinging to the bonnet of his car.

Mark Dawson, 51, of Old School Walk, York, was doing his friend a favour by dropping off a takeaway pizza in Bootham Terrace on November 20 last year when Charles Aston and his wife arrived home and found Dawson on their driveway.

Joe Sculley, prosecuting at York and Selby Magistrates’ Court, said Dawson, who is disabled and walks with a stick, said the friend had been too busy to deliver the pizza and asked him to do it for him.

Mr Aston, however, claimed he had not ordered a takeaway.

Dawson began arguing with Mr Aston, became “angry and visibly aggressive” and punched him in the face.

Mr Sculley added: “He went back to his car and before he could drive away in his Vauxhall Astra Mr Aston put himself on the bonnet and the defendant drove along Bootham Terrace.”

The court heard Dawson stopped the car and the pair grappled in the street as Dawson tried to get Mr Aston away from his vehicle.

When Dawson eventually got back behind the wheel, Mr Aston climbed back onto the bonnet and again clung onto it as Dawson reversed down the York street.

Mr Aston managed to get off the car when it slowed and ran back to his home.

Both men phoned the police to report they had been assaulted and Dawson had to go to hospital for a check-up before speaking to officers.

Mr Sculley added: “He said he was the victim and had been punched and kicked in the chest.”

Mark Partridge, defending Dawson, said his client’s car was damaged and the assault was not a sustained attack.

Dawson pleaded guilty to a charge of assault and was fined a total of £414.

Magistrates told him: “This was a most regrettable incident in that you acted in anger.”