A takeaway worker head-butted and punched a customer after a dispute in the shop.

Ozgurcan Altin, 21, of Johnson Street, Selby, appeared before York Crown Court for sentencing yesterday, after earlier pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Rob Galley, prosecuting, said the complainant, Samuel Hatton, had been for a night out in Selby on March 19 and had drunk about eight pints of lager.

At the end of the night he went into the Castle takeaway in Finkle Street with a friend and ordered some fried chicken. But when he put his money on the counter he was 50p short of the £2 price.

Mr Galley said: “The complainant said he was grabbed by the throat.

“The friend of Mr Hatton then jumped between them, but the attacker then returned, head-butted Mr Hatton and punched him.”

The violence spilled out into the street, where Mr Hatton was twice punched on the back of the head before again being grabbed by the throat.

The victim suffered a cut above his eye and a possible fracture to his nose.

Chloe Fairley, mitigating, told the court that something had provoked her client.

She said: “He knows he should not have acted in the way he did and it was something born out of frustration.

“He is not a young man who has gone out seeking violence and confrontation. He has, in effect, lost his temper.”

Sentencing Altin, Judge Colin Burn said: “I think on balance that you were probably on the receiving end of some abuse on the evening in question. That, of course, is inexcusable, but what you did is equally inexcusable.”

Altin was sentenced to a 12-month community order and told to complete 180 hours unpaid work.

He must also pay £300 court costs.

The court heard he no longer worked at the takeaway.