A MAN has been ordered to do unpaid work in the community as punishment for attacking a woman in a fight over a jacket.

Joseph Agnew, 34, pleaded guilty back in August to assaulting the woman in Clydebank on October 13 last year in a dispute over a jacket.

Last week at Dumbarton Sheriff Court the HGV driver returned to learn his sentence.

Fiscal depute Martina McGuigan said in the lead up to the incident, there had been a junior football match and arrangements were made to meet Agnew in Clydebank, just before midnight.

Around 2am, Agnew was with others in a trailer in the car park at the Play Drome and there was a dispute over a jumper, baseball cap and hi-vis jacket.

Agnew told a woman there to take the items off, but she thought he was joking.

Ms McGuigan said: “He stepped forward and took the cap off her head and grabbed her by the throat. She attempted to get free.

“Other people intervened and he released his hand from her throat. She apologised and took the jacket off. She began to cry and left the trailer and ran to the nearby Asda and called the police.”

Agnew, of Swanston Street, Dalmarnock, was on bail for an offence heard at Kirkwall Sheriff Court at the time.

His defence solicitor told the court the dad-of-two had a record but was last convicted in 2009.

The lawyer said: “He accepts his guilt. It’s his position he was slapped in the face at some point but he accepts his actions fell far short of self-defence.

“It was a dispute over the jacket. During the conversation with the social worker, he has tried to minimise [what happened].

“He appreciates it’s a serious matter and has much to lose.”

Sheriff William Gallacher said it was only the fact Agnew’s past conviction was so many years ago that prevent him going to jail.

He sentenced Agnew to 150 hours of unpaid work in the community within 10 months - extra time “largely because of the demands on the social work here”.

The community payback order will be reviewed in February.

Sheriff Gallacher added: “It’s a straight option to consider – if you don’t do it, that’s what will happen.”