MARK Cogden's girlfriend damaged his cherished motorbike after he decided to go to the pub with his friends rather than take her out for Sunday lunch, a court was told.

Vanya Morrell then sent the 24-year-old a text telling him what she had done.

Cogden rushed straight round her house to find his bike damaged, his crash helmet smashed and his clothing slashed, said Steven Ovenden, prosecuting.

An angry Cogdon then picked up the bike's chain and used it to smash three double-glazed windows in her council-owned house, he added. A neighbour who witnessed his act of revenge called police.

Cogdon, of Crab Lane, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, admitted criminal damage and said he smashed the windows because his girlfriend had damaged his bike.

He said that he had spent £2,000 and four months' work getting it ''just right".

"I was in the pub with friends when I got a text message telling me what had happened, all because I had not taken her out for Sunday lunch," he told Harrogate magistrates.

Cogdon, who showed pictures of the damaged bike to court chairman Brian Pattyson, told him: ''I'd like to say I am sorry for what I have done. I just saw red. I was that mad.''

He was fined £200 with £50 costs and ordered to pay £687.91 compensation to Harrogate Borough Council.