TAKING exception to being insulted in a Dunfermline pub proved costly for one West Fife grandad this week.

Giuseppe Benzoni, 53, of Macbeth Road, assaulted a man he had been talking to in a bar and told police later that he had "lost the plot" and replied with his hands after several comments were made in the Seven Kings pub.

Appearing for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday (Wednesday), he had earlier admitted that on April 22 this year on High Street, he struck his victim on the head and kicked and punched him repeatedly on the body to his injury.

Depute fiscal Alistair McDermott said: "At about 10.20pm, the witness was walking along Dunfermline High Street when the accused approached him and he struck him from behind to the back of his head and thereafter began kicking him and punching him to the body," he told the court.

"The accused was then traced by police. When he was being booked into police custody, he repeatedly made comments about the incident to the effect of, 'I punched the guy. I went over the score, I had been insulted one, two three times and I lost the plot'."

Solicitor James Moncrieff said the victim had got annoyed that his partner was talking to Benzoni and became abusive to him.

He said his client had some difficulty in his personal life at the time as his grand-daughter was in the process of being born two months prematurely.

"At the time he was under some degree of stress and the complainer pushed his buttons on too many occasions," he said. "He has lived in this country since 1979 and this is the first time he has been before the court." 

Sheriff Craig McSherry ordered Benzoni to pay a fine of £400.