MAGISTRATES told a 29-year-old man who admitted striking fear into a couple that it was time he grew up.

The dressing down was given to Ian Blackshaw when he pleaded guilty at Harrogate court to using threatening behaviour which put Jeff Gascoyne in fear of violence, and breached a conditional discharge imposed last June for handling stolen meat.

Bench chairman Hugh Simpson handed down a 12-month community rehabilitation order, and told Blackshaw, of Hambleton Road, Harrogate: "It is time, at the age of 29, for you to grow up a bit. You have had a lifetime of misbehaviour - start to sort yourself out."

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said Blackshaw and another man, Giovanni Greco, had been spotted late at night in Mayfield Grove, Harrogate, after a couple living there had seen a wing mirror pulled from a parked car. About £400 worth of damage was done to the vehicle.

Mr Gascoyne had run to confront the pair and had been verbally abused. He had felt threatened when the men began to close on him and had tried to push Blackshaw away.

Although Blackshaw had turned away, he then spun suddenly and hit Mr Gascoyne on the chin with a "roundhouse" punch.

The pair had grappled and fallen over a wall, and Mr Gascoyne had been clawed across his face before Blackshaw had "run out of fight".

But in the early hours of the following morning, Blackshaw had returned and sat on a wall opposite Mr Gascoyne's home calling for a fight.

"He (Mr Gascoyne) was frightened for his own safety and that of his wife, and the police were called," said Mrs Tyrer.

She said Blackshaw's conviction for handling had come after he had acted as driver for two men who stole meat from a co-op store in Harrogate.

In mitigation, Geoffrey Rogers said Blackshaw and Mr Greco had been larking about while walking home.

Blackshaw had felt aggrieved at being accused of damage to the car which Mr Greco had later admitted, he said.