A CRICKET bat and a stepladder were used as weapons when a business feud between two brothers flared into violence, a court heard.

Harrogate magistrates heard how 53-year-old Malcolm Holder's attack on his younger brother left him with a suspected fractured skull and ribs, blurred vision and a broken tooth.

When Holder pleaded guilty to assault on his brother, Paul, Stephanie Brown, prosecuting, said a family dispute over business had been the trigger to the violence.

She added that the Holders had been involved in several ventures including a caravan sales and repairs enterprise in the old railway goods yard at Hutton Bank, Ripon, over many years.

Holder, of Hillside Road, Pannal, Harrogate, had stormed into a workshop at Hutton Bank and insisted his brother leave.

Mrs Brown said that he became more and more agitated and began hitting his brother with both hands.

Paul grabbed a stepladder to defend himself but it was pulled from him and used to hit him on the arm.

The incident continued outside where Mr Holder senior tried to part his two sons but Paul was knocked to the floor and kicked.

Paul had not worked for ten weeks after the attack.

In mitigation, Geoffrey Boothby said Holder, married with two children, had been in a long-standing business with his brother and father and that his emotions had simply boiled over.

He claimed that at one stage Paul Holder had struck his brother with a cricket bat so hard the bat broke.

Holder, who had no previous convictions, was given a conditional discharge for a year and ordered to pay costs of £70 and compensation to his brother of £100.

Court chairman John Metcalfe told him: "Whatever happens, whatever provocation, you have to walk away."