Colin Nugent, 29, of Vanguard Street in Clydebank grabbed hold of his victim’s clothing, pulling him to the ground, head butting him and repeatedly punched him to the head and body during the attack on August 31 last year.

A second victim was knocked unconscious after being hit on the head.

When he fell to the ground Nugent repeatedly punched and kicked him on the head and body to his injury.

Nugent had been found guilty of the assault charges, by a jury during a trial at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, and a further charge of brandishing a knife and making violent threats in the garden of his home on the same date.

When he appeared back at the court for sentencing, Sheriff John Herald said: “While I don’t in anyway disagree with the jury, I suspect there was more to the background of this than I heard.

“The complainers in this case are less than lily-white and have since moved away.

“Taking everything into account I am going to impose a community payback order, it is a fine balance and there’s not much between going one way and the other. If you don’t comply with the order you could go the other way.” The conditions of the order mean that Nugent will be supervised for the next two years and will have to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community within the next year.