A COMPANY director who kicked a man unconscious in his local pub has narrowly avoided going to prison.

Joseph Curry was ordered to pay his victim - who lost seven teeth and suffered a fractured cheekbone - £5,000 compensation.

The 51-year-old will also have to do 240 hours of unpaid community work, which a judge said would be "humiliating" for a man of his age and previous good character.

It is not clear why trouble flared in The Stockton pub in Redcar last September, but words were exchanged at the bar before Curry punched the other man in the face.

As the victim was getting back to his feet, the company boss kicked him in the face and knocked him out for seven minutes, prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court.

Closed circuit television footage shows others intervene and helped before an ambulance arrived and took the injured man to hospital.

In a statement, the victim told how he felt lucky his jaw and nose were not broken, and said the assault has left him feeling anxious about going out.

"My confidence has been knocked," he said. "I am not the same person I was before the attack. I wish I could turn the clock back and be the sociable, happy person I was."

Three days after the incident, Curry handed himself in to police and confessed, and later admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Judge Deborah Sherwin imposed a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and also ordered the married father-of-two to pay £340 costs.

Peter Makepeace, QC, said Curry set up his cable jointing company ten years ago, employs three people full-time and two sub-contractors.

The court was provided with a bundle of references – including ones from a senior ex-police officer, and the landlord of the pub – which Mr Makepeace said "speak of a very different person to the one seen on the CCTV".

He added: "He cannot fully account for why he behaved as he did. He appears before the court having never been in trouble at any time in his life. He feels quite acutely the shame this brings upon him."

Judge Sherwin told Curry, of Mount Pleasant Avenue, Marske, near Redcar: "You have come very close to being sent to prison for this. This is a very serious offence."