A 38-year-old man from Anagh Coar has been fined £275 after a row with his brother over a hat.

Shaun William Kirby, of Koinney, admitted being drunk and disorderly in Victoria Street in Douglas on December 23.

Prosecutor Roger Kane told the court how Kirby was seen by police as he was involved in a row with his brother.

As officers approached Kirby was said to have grabbed his brother by his clothes and was shouting and swearing.

Police parted the two siblings and as they separated Kirby fell over.

He then began swearing at police and continued to be disorderly as police restrained him.

Police offered Kirby the chance to deal with incident without it going to court by attending an Alcohol Intervention Referral Scheme.

However, Kirby cancelled his first appointment then failed to attend a second appointment without giving a reason and the matter was subsequently taken to court.

Defence advocate Aalish Hannan said: ’Mr Kirby wishes to apologise for failing to attend the appointments. The second appointment he forgot. He couldn’t recall the name of the officer to contact.

’The altercation was with his brother. They had both consumed alcohol. He’d removed his brother’s hat and his brother didn’t like that. He was co-operative in custody.’

Ms Hannan went on to say that Kirby worked in retail and had no similar offences since he was a juvenile.

Magistrates’ chair David Christian told Kirby while passing sentence: ’Probably the lesson to learn is, if your brother has got a hat on his head, leave it there.’