A HOSPITAL chef who broke a pubgoer's cheekbone when he pushed the wrong man in a York city centre street has been jailed for 12 months.

Staff at Flairs pub, in Tanner Row, told police that Paul Anthony Simpkins, 32, was "ranting and raving" in their premises on June 1, 2002, and looking as though he wanted a fight, said Nicholas Barker, prosecuting.

Outside the pub, he pushed Andrew Fort so hard the other man fell to the ground with a thump and broke his cheekbone.

Mr Barker said that though there may have been a physical interaction between Simpkins and a group in the pub, it did not involve Mr Fort.

Simpkins had been put on probation less than a month before the incident for attacking his partner in their home.

"You are physically a big man, but you are no gentle giant. You are a big violent man," the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman told the chef when he appeared beofre him at York Crown Court. "You fractured a man's cheekbone and to make things worse, it was the wrong man."

He jailed Simpkins for 12 months.

The chef, of Danum Road, Fulford, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm. He had previous convictions for violence, the court heard.

For Simpkins, John Lodge said pubgoers had been winding his client up. Someone had kicked him in the shin as he was leaving Flairs and he accepted he had pushed the wrong man.

The chef realised he had a problem with violence which he was trying to tackle. Some of his previous convictions for violence had occurred when he was mixing with the wrong people in southern England.

Updated: 13:43 Saturday, December 14, 2002