A MAN'S attempt to get back with his ex-wife after being invited to her birthday party ended in trouble, a court heard yesterday.

Colin Dunne's solicitor, Simon Berger, told Harrogate magistrates how the 30-year-old unemployed painter and the woman, from whom he had been separated for more than a year, had got on well at the party at her home in Dene Park Close, Bilton, near Harrogate.

He had stayed behind when other guests left in the early hours of last Monday, but then the couple argued and she locked him out. Mr Berger said that when she did not respond to his shouts, Dunne got frustrated and used a breeze-block to smash a window.

Dunne, now living with his mother in Frogmire Road, Knaresborough, pleaded guilty to a criminal damage charge and one of failing to answer his bail. He was fined £75 and ordered to pay £55 costs and £150 to have the window replaced.