A BAR owner has been found guilty of assaulting a shopkeeper in a row over an unpaid drinks tab.

Josh Warwick

A BAR owner has been found guilty of assaulting a shopkeeper in a row over an unpaid drinks tab.

Leslie Crossley had denied assaulting David Dugard causing him actually bodily harm but a jury at Ipswich Crown Court disagreed.

During the two-day trial, Crossley said Mr Dugard had punched him in the face after the defendant had challenged him over the �1,250 bar bill he claimed he was owed.

Crossley told jurors he had grabbed him by the collar and pushed him to the ground to prevent him from striking him again during the incident at Mr Dugard's shop in Felixstowe.

The 53-year-old defendant, who told the court he weighed 23 stone, said he had fallen on to Mr Dugard but had not punched him.

He said he could not explain how Mr Dugard lost consciousness and suffered a black eye, bruising on his forehead and nose, and a cut to his hand.

The attack took place on November 2 last year at Mr Dugard's JD Janitorial Services shop in Beach Station Road.

Ipswich Crown Court heard how the complainant and the defendant had been friends but had fallen out after the former ran up a tab at Crossley's Sands bar in Felixstowe.

Crossley, of Orwell Road, Felixstowe, said he tried to call Mr Dugard, whom he knew as JD, on numerous occasions in an attempt to resolve the issue. However, he said Mr Dugard had refused to answer his calls.

Michael Crimp, prosecuting, suggested to Crossley he had tried to enforce payment through the use of violence.

“Everything else you tried hadn't worked,” he said.

Earlier in the trial, the court heard Mr Dugard's version of events, during which he claimed that punching a man of Crossley's size would have been akin to “suicide”.

Crossley will be sentenced on August 3.