A cricket bat and a stepladder were used as weapons when a business feud between two brothers flared into violence, a court heard today.

Harrogate magistrates were told by prosecutor Stephanie Brown how 53-year-old Malcolm Holder's attack on his younger brother left him with a suspected fractured skull and ribs, blurred vision and a broken tooth.

When Holder pleaded guilty to assault on his brother Paul, Mrs Brown said a family dispute over business - the Holders have been involved in several ventures including a caravan sales and repairs enterprise in the old railway goods yard at Hutton Bank, Ripon, over many years - had been the trigger to the violence.

Paul Holder had been at Hutton Bank with his father on July 11 when his brother arrived. ''They are all part owners of this site which is subject to a dispute,'' said Mrs Brown.

Holder, of Hillside Road, Pannal, Harrogate, had stormed into a workshop and insisted his brother should leave. As he became more and more agitated Holder began hitting his brother with both hands. Paul grabbed a stepladder to defend himself but it was pulled from him and used to hit him on the arm.

The incident continued outside where Mr Holder senior tried to part his two sons but Paul was knocked to the floor and kicked. He had not worked for 10 weeks after the attack.

In mitigation Geoffrey Boothby said Holder, married with two children, had been in a long-standing business with his brother and father involving companies and properties which were jointly owned. It had crippled him financially and affected his and his wife's health.

Countless meetings and a huge amount of correspondence had failed to find a way out of the impasse, though Holder was anxious to see an amicable settlement.

The incident had begun with an exchange of punches between the brothers as emotions had boiled over. At one stage Paul Holder had struck his brother with a cricket bat so hard the bat broke.

Holder, who had no previous convictions, was given a conditional discharge for a year and ordered to pay costs of £70 and compensation to his brother of £100. Court chairman John Metcalfe told him: ''Whatever happens, whatever provocation, you have to walk away.''