A late night reveller who said he was play fighting with a friend ended up with a conviction for being drunk and disorderly.

Jason Craig Kneale was spotted running from the Courthouse bar on Athol Street in Douglas at around 2.30am before falling to the ground apparently grappling with another man.

Mark Benson, for the prosecution, said the 22-year-old was shouting and swearing as police intervened and separated them.

Mr Benson said police had ’formed the opinion he may be drunk’ and arrested Kneale.

The defendant, who lives at Close Drean in Ramsey, admitted being drunk and disorderly in the small hours on February 19.

Defending him, Paul Glover told the court, he had been out drinking alcohol and it was a jolly evening.

The person he was grappling with on the floor was a friend and also his house mate.

’It was general horseplay although there were some minor injuries,’ he said.

Noting his fine payments were in arrears, magistrates’ chairman Ken Faragher said: ’This does not appear to be a one-off occurrence.’

Kneale was fined £350 with £125 costs and a licensing act ban on entering licensed premises was extended from six to 12 months.