A TRAVEL agent who attacked a love rival he saw in a nightclub has dodged prison.

Instead, David Dixon must pay his victim £300 and a £200 fine for the fracas.

Teesside Crown Court heard how trouble flared when the two men met on the stairs in Tiny in Middlesbrough.

Dixon, 29, threw a drink over his victim – his partner’s ex-boyfriend – before they started trading blows.

In an interview with police, he said: “He hit me, I hit him. It was a full-blown fight.”

The victim suffered a black eye and a grazed shoulder.

Andrew Turton, mitigating, claimed the woman had received threats from her ex.

“In drink and with clouded judgement, unfortunately, the recent history boiled over and produced that trigger.”

Dixon, of North Terrace, Seaham, admitted assault by beating after no evidence was offered on a more serious charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Judge Peter Armstrong told him: “Whatever the background, you must not assault people in clubs. This has cost you £500.”