A RIOT broke out at a refugee hostel after a group of Iraqi Kurds had their pocket money cut to pay for damage caused to the building.

The Angel Heights hostel, in Newcastle, erupted in violence after the men were warned that their £7 weekly allowance would be cut to £5 until the damage to fire alarm panels and extinguishers was paid for.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how the Iraqi Kurds' representative, Mohammed Ezzat-Hikmat, 46, was warned about the cut before being served with an official warning when they refused the £5 ruling.

Julian Smith, prosecuting, told how violence broke out when the warning was served in the hostel's dining room.

At the time, it housed 112 Iraqi Kurds, 45 Iranian Kurds and 23 Afghans.

After trouble erupted in the dining room, it spilled into the corridors. Crockery, tables and chairs were thrown, and walls and windows were smashed in the melee.

The damage amounted to a total of more than £5,500. A total of 41 windows, 30 chairs, six tables and a large amount of fire extinguishers and crockery were broken.

The fire alarm system was also damaged.

Mr Smith told the court how Ezzat-Hikmat, along with Barbarasie Arlsakan, 24, Farman Mohammed-Amin, 19, Paviah Mahmoud-Hussein, 20, Lalo Jamil-Mahmoud, 23, and Zayd Osman, 23, ransacked the building and forced terrified staff to cower in their office for safety.

All six defendants were charged with violent disorder, but yesterday admitted a lesser public order offence.

Each was sentenced to a 100-hour community punishment order, except Essat-Hikmat, a highly regarded civil servant in Kurdistan, who was conditionally discharged on health grounds.

Speaking on behalf of all the refugees, defence barrister Christopher Gumsley complained that the men might not be suitable to carry out work in the community, because of language problems, as none of them spoke English.

But Judge Esmond Faulks said: "It might improve their English. Point at a garden and point at a spade and they will get the general drift."

Mr Gumsley said: "Nothing excuses the damage that was caused.

"They were told their income would be cut by a third because of the behaviour of a person not connected to them, and who staff at Angel Heights knew was not connected to them.

"They were punished like schoolboys."