A MAN who ejected two women from a pub by lifting them by their hair has had his jail sentence reduced to a community punishment order.

Stephen Anthony Spensley, 33, of Hattonsfield Farm, Potlo Hall, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was jailed for three months last July, for two counts of battery.

Spensley, a director of the company which owned the Dickens Inn, in Middlesbrough, only spent four days in prison. He was bailed pending yesterday's hearing in London's Criminal Appeal Court.

The judges decided the offences did not warrant immediate custody and instead imposed a 100-hour community punishment order.

Spensley was also given 21 days to pay compensation orders - made at the time of sentence - of £500 to each victim.

In September 2001, he had been with friends at the pub when a disturbance broke out between some young women.

Spensley intervened, ejecting four women, pulling two of them by their hair and throwing them on to the street.

Spensley had been charged with four counts of battery, but was acquitted in relation to the two other women.