PLANT hire firm owner John Sellers has started 18 months behind bars after punching three people outside a York pub.

One of his victims, company director Helen Smith, was left permanently scarred by the drunken attack outside The Grey Horse, in Elvington.

York Crown Court heard how Sellers, 36, who runs a plant hire company from his home near Stamford Bridge, also punched two other men in the "ugly and shameful" attack.

Speaking after the hearing, Mrs Smith, who runs Osbaldwick interior design firm Smith Brothers, said she now wanted to put the violent attack behind her.

She said: "It was just gratuitous violence and horrible. A revolting experience, especially to be associated with that man. I don't think he even knew who I was."

Detective Constable Duncan Thackery, who led the case, welcomed the sentence. He said: "This is a good result."

Judge Paul Hoffman said that although it could put Sellers' business at risk and would deeply affect his family, only a prison sentence could be an appropriate punishment.

He said: "There are plainly two sides to your character. One is...(that) you are a good family man, a father, and you have achieved a good deal in business. All matters to the good.

"The other side is that you are a man with a streak of violence running through you. You have a number of recorded convictions.

"The last is relevant too, in effect some ten years ago, but perhaps not without significance with violence committed in a pub as happened here.

"Your counsel described this as 'ugly and shameful' and I agree. I'm afraid that prison is inevitable and there are no exceptional circumstances to justify a suspension."

The court had already been told how violence broke out in The Grey Horse pub during a leaving party for the licensees on April 3, 2004.

Sellers, 36, admitted punching Mrs Smith and then two other men in three charges of causing actual bodily harm. Mrs Smith required stitches to a mouth wound and was knocked to the floor by the blow.

When police arrived, Sellers was restrained with two pairs of handcuffs and gave officers a false name to "wind them up", a prosecutor said.

Nick Johnson, for Sellers, said his client had "moved on" from a period of his life in his 20s when he received several convictions for violence and had a drinking problem.

He said Sellers became violent after trouble was started inside the pub by two other men which led to the party being broken up and him being sworn at and manhandled outside.

Speaking of his family life, he said Sellers was reunited with his daughter three years ago, and fosters two teenagers with troubled backgrounds.

Mr Johnson said Sellers' business, Sellers Plant Hire, employs up to 20 people, and although it has some large contracts, including a £250,000 one for the ongoing A1M link work, it could be put in jeopardy by his imprisonment.

Updated: 10:19 Friday, October 14, 2005