THE LANDLORD of Colne bar was hit with a chair by a drunken man who had walked into his premises by mistake.

Blackburn magistrates heard Andrew Beechey was attending the Colne Festival in June and estimated he had drunk 14 or 15 pints before going into the Tapsters Promise.

Beechey, 56, of Oak Street, Colne, pleaded guilty to assaulting Oliver Brooks. He was made subject to a community order for 12 months with 80 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £50 compensation, £85 costs and £85 victim surcharge.

Parveen Akhtar, prosecuting, said Mr Brooks was the owner of the Tapsters Promise and was working there on June 15. Beechey came in and after some drunken behaviour was asked to leave.

"An argument followed and the defendant swung a chair at Mr Brooks which caught him on the side of the head," said Miss Akhtar. "He was thrown out and a customer identified him."

Waseem Chowdharry, defending, said his client didn't dispute the prosecution version of events even though he couldn't remember everything because of the amount he had to drink.

Beechey told the probation officer who prepared a pre-sentence report that he had drunk about 14 or 15 pints of lager. He had been with friends and left the pub they were in to go and get some money from a cash machine. There were three bars in a row and he went back into the wrong one and thought his friends had left him.