A MAN living rough grabbed £50 dropped by the victim of his late night assault, a court heard.

Alan Lawrence, 24, delivered the single blow which floored the victim, who had been drinking heavily, as he was making his way home on a towpath, in Seaham, County Durham, on the night of January 6.

Durham Crown Court heard Lawrence rang for an ambulance and tried to assist the prone victim, who was bleeding from the face.

But after paramedics arrived, Lawrence noticed a £10 and two £20 notes which must have dropped from his pocket.

Joanne Kidd said it was impossible to say if he had been robbed or if the money was genuinely dropped and found by Lawrence.

As a result the prosecution accepted his ‘guilty’ pleas to charges of theft and common assault, rather than robbery.

Lawrence, of no fixed abode, also admitted burglary of a home he entered using a crow bar, in Fox Street, Seaham, a week later.

Jane Waugh, mitigating, said he only entered that unoccupied premises as a means of gaining entry to an adjoining shop, an offence for which he has already been dealt with, at magistrates’ court.

She added that Lawrence pushed the victim of the assault, fearing he was going to be attacked by him, but accepted using more force than may have been necessary to defend himself.

Jailing Lawrence for 15 months, Judge Neil Clark described the towpath incident as, “a mean offence”, on a man he had apparently tried to help.