A CUSTOMER who was "offered outside" when trouble flared in a takeaway ended up in court - after he won the fight.

Ryan Harris was arrested and charged because kicking the other man in the head was deemed excessive self-defence.

Harris was minding his own business when challenged in the shop in the Market Place at Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that the 29-year-old felled his opponent - then kicked him "like a football".

The victim was taken to hospital to be treated for bruising and swelling to his head, and a suspected fractured cheek.

Harris himself suffered a broken nose in the late-night skirmish on June 1, but then got the better of the other man.

Eye-witnesses described a bout of "drunken wrestling" before joiner Harris threw the instigator to the ground.

His barrister, Ian West, told the court: "His problem is, having been invited outside, he didn't decline the invitation.

"He has a limp, and gets abuse for it. He doesn't like backing down. Clearly, the kick is the blow that goes beyond self-defence.

"It is this act which puts his liberty at jeopardy because it was, at that stage, gratuitous, and the complainant was vulnerable."

Harris, of Reeth Road, Richmond, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was given a four-month suspended prison sentence.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, also imposed a three-month curfew from 9pm to 5am, and ordered Harris to pay £420 costs and a £250 fine.

The judge did not order any damages, because he said the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board does not pay out to victims who play a part in their own misfortune.

He told Harris, who sobbed in the dock: "Most significantly, this would not have happened were it not for the complainant starting the fight."

The judge was given a bundle of references from family, friends and an employee, which Mr West said "painted a very different picture" of Harris.

"In a case where there was a consensual fight, he deserves considerable credit for pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

"The defendant actually ended up with a broken nose, so, in terms of injuries, it was a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other."