Subscribe to one or all notification sources from this one place.
Subscribe to our newsletter to get the day's top stories sent directly to you.
Magistrates have ordered that a former tyre fitter must pay compensation to an ex-colleague after they had a shop floor fight in front of customers - over a puncture.
Samuel Broadbent, aged 32 and of High Street, Wem, had been working at a Shrewsbury Kwik Fit branch on March 18, 2023, when he and co-worker Toby St John Mitchell got into an argument.
Speaking at Telford Magistrates Court on Wednesday, prosecutor Katie Price said a customer had gone into the business to get a puncture fixed.
Mr Mitchell went to the canteen for a break and Broadbent then went to the car with a screwdriver and pliers and tried to remove a screw.
Mrs Price said the victim challenged him over his work, telling him: "I see you again, I will make you pay." There had been a single puncture and now there were two punctures, he claimed.
"The defendant was irate and took a wheel nut gun and thrust it into the victim's face, with its battery pack hitting his chin," she said.
They ended up hitting each other with their fists and and fell on the floor "in front of customers and other employees" before coming to rest near the service bay.
Broadbent, who was representing himself in court, admitted to assaulting his former colleague. He now works closer to home in Wem.
"Something had been happening for a while, there were problems between him and me which the management had not answered," he said.
"I came to move the screw from the tyre, he proceeded to accuse me of stabbing the tyre and writing the tyre off," he said.
"I lost my temper and assaulted him."
Presiding magistrate David Silcock said: "You are going to have to control your temper."
He handed Broadbent a conditional discharge for eight months.
"You are not being punished today," he added, ordering him to pay his victim £100 compensation and £135 in court costs.
By David Tooley
Senior Reporter@TooleyMedia
Senior reporter at the Shropshire Star, focusing on the south of the county. Got a story? Get in touch at [email protected].

source