A MAN who assaulted two customers with a glass in a Dunfermline pub has avoided a jail sentence.

Dean Oxley, from Teeside, was chased from the pub by irate customers and jumped into a police car to escape from them.

Oxley, 31, had been working in Fife and went out drinking for the day to watch a football match.

However, violence erupted when he glassed a man after sitting on his stool. As Oxley tried to escape from the pub, he was confronted by another customer and punched him in the face with what was left of the beer glass.

At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Oxley admitted that on March 19 at Coady’s, Pilmuir Street, he assaulted his victim by striking him on the face with a glass to his injury.

He then assaulted another complainer by punching him on the face whilst holding a glass.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner said the incident occurred when Oxley went into the bar at around 10.30pm, ordered a drink and sat down.

“The witness had been at the toilets and came back and was heard politely telling the accused he had been sitting there.

“The accused immediately struck him on the face with a glass and struck him with such force that the glass shattered.

“This was witnessed by a number of customers including the other complainant, who had been sitting near the door.

“As the accused tried to leave, the complainer stood up and the accused struck him on the face, still holding pieces of the broken glass.

“The accused then ran from the locus pursued by a number of people. He ran to a stationary police vehicle and got in it. The vehicle was then surrounded by those pursuing him.”

The depute said the first man was injured but refused hospital treatment and the second man was not injured.

Defence solicitor Gordon Martin said his client was working at Rosyth Dockyard at the time of this incident.

His client’s position was that the comment about the seat had been made aggressively but he admitted he “over-reacted” to this.

His client had gone out to watch his football team Middlesbrough on TV and was drinking throughout the day.

He said his client’s tee-shirt had been ripped off in a struggle, a bar stool was thrown at him and he had to “seek refuge” in a police car as he was chased from the pub.

Sheriff Craig McSherry received a letter from Oxley and a “voluminous” number of character references from people who know him in Teeside.

The sheriff said he took account of these and the time spent on remand since the offence when deciding “with some considerable reluctance” to only impose a financial penalty. He fined Oxley £900.