A RACIST lout who attacked a shopkeeper and his friend was behind bars tonight (Wednesday, March 13) after being branded "thoroughly disgraceful" by a judge.

James Appleby yelled obscenities at Fakher Rasul Mohammed when he said he was charging too much for a can of lager and a chocolate bar.

Mr Mohammed - who was helping out his friend Jafar Sheikbezini at the store in Stockton - suffered a dislocated shoulder after being kicked.

When the shopkeeper tried to intervene, he was punched in the face and sustained a cut lip, prosecutor Sue Jacobs told Teesside Crown Court.

Appleby, 35, ripped off his top and bare-chested challenged Mr Sheikbezini to a fight before being restrained by a passer-by, said Mrs Jacobs.

When police arrived at the Londis shop in Bowesfield Avenue, Appleby was unsteady on his feet and shouting abuse. 

The court heard how he had earlier gone into the store carrying a small dog and became offensive when Mr Mohammed asked for payment.

He shouted: "You f***ing P****, why is everything so expensive . . . you take all our jobs" before pushing him over and kicking him.

Brian Russell, mitigating, said although Appleby has a lengthy record, he has very few convictions for violence - just two in 2009 and 2010.

Appleby, of Westbourne Street, Stockton, was jailed for 16 months after he admitted racially-aggravated grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC told him: "You, on this occasion, behaved not only in a violent way, but a thoroughly disgraceful anti-social way. Courts cannot and will not tolerate it.

"They were deeply unpleasant racial remarks."