A MAN who smashed the windows of a pub where his brother worked following an argument is counting the cost today.

Ryan Laddie had spent the day drinking in The Black Horse Public House on Front Street in Consett before getting into a row with his brother and throwing bricks through the windows, a court heard.

The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to criminal damage when he appeared in County Durham and Darlington Magistrates' Court.

Magistrates heard how the self-employed ground worker admitted being an 'arse' and accepted that on a scale of one to ten of drunkenness he was at 100.

Solicitor Paul Donoghue, mitigating, said his client had spent the day drinking in the pub before staying back and drinking further with staff when the bar closed.

He said: "He accepts he can't remember the argument and he also accepts that it will have been him being stupid that caused it.

"He was concerned that it could have affected his brother's employment but thankfully, it hasn't."

Laddie, of Palmerston Street, Consett, was given a conditional discharge for months and ordered to pay £463 in damages to the pub's owner.

He was also ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £20 victim surcharge.