A CALL centre worker who pushed a York pub landlord and punched a DJ in the face has admitted two racist assaults.

Rahul Ahmed Pandya, 22, arrived at the Victoria pub on the corner of Heslington Road and Cemetery Road, York, just after midnight, and wanted to speak to “Sarah”, said Katherine Smith, prosecuting.

Staff told him the pub was closed and no-one called “Sarah” was there, and ushered him out twice.

On the second occasion he pushed the landlord into a window and then punched the DJ in the face, giving him a black eye.

During the incident in the pub on March 30, he called both of them racist names, Mrs Smith told York Magistrates' Court.

Pandya, of Elm Close, Selby, pleaded guilty to two racist assaults and was fined £400.

He was ordered to pay each victim £200 compensation, plus a £30 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

District judge Adrian Lower said Pandya probably knew how hateful racism could be from personal experience.

“Whoever is being abused, whatever their colour, that is wrong and that is why the law treats it so seriously,” he said.

Of the DJ, he said: “He was only acting in a public spirited way by trying to stop matters getting even more out of hand.”

For Pandya, John Howard said he had behaved out of character and handed in character references.

He said Pandya had been on a “team building” exercise at which “drink was flowing, bought by the management”.

Pandya had been drinking since 6pm.

“He doesn’t remember a great deal about what happened because he had been drinking too much,” said Mr Howard.

Pandya had gone looking for his girlfriend, and had thought he was in the street near the pub where she lived.

Mrs Smith said the landlord wasn’t injured.