A MAN who broke another man’s jaw with a single punch has been spared prison.

Instead George Randles, 27, of Beechwood Road, Saltney, was given an eight-month suspended sentence but must pay his victim £2,000 compensation.

At Caernarfon Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Huw Rees also ordered at that Randles must carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.

He pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm last July in an incident outside a local pub at which there had been a 40th birthday party.

He thought the victim had been harassing his (Randles’) girlfriend.

Sarah Badrawy, prosecuting, said the victim, in his mid-50s, needed two operations after his jaw was broken in two places.

Myles Wilson, defending, said there had been a degree of provocation.

Randles had his own business as a landscape gardener and was “a hard working young man.”

Judge Rees told Randles: “If drinking makes you aggressive you need to drink less and control it.”